ASA, Air Willy or CoEx????

[Millls22]

Just lookin for some advice about which to go to. It looks like the upgrade time for all of them are about the same, 4 years or so. The pay is relatively the same too. Where are the new Air Willy bases going to be? Also, does anyone know about how long reserve is lasting at any of them....I know someone that works at Comair and the reserve there seems to last forever!!

 

[~~~^~~~]

COEX and CHQ are probably winners.

ASA is a horrible place to work. Crew scheduling is an absolute nightmare. The retirement of the ATR's will stagnate the upgrade opportunities and who knows how many airplanes will be diverted to SkyWest? Then we have the issue of contract negotiations getting to the really nasty stage and performance so bad that we constantly change managers hoping that someone has the solution (hint, pay your support staff more than Wendy's pays theirs). And speaking of pay, the Delta guys are dealing with a proposal to pay their 100 seat Captains $88 and FO's $60 after 12 years. It probably will not happen, but those rates are lower than ASA and will bring negative pressure on our current pay.

I listened to the junior folks calling crew scheduling to get released tonight. As they got their days off taken to work through another weekend I thought to myself, "why does anyone stay here." A guy with 6, or 7 years in might have some reason to stay. Anyone else is just wasting their time....

Here is a little reading and may I suggest that the airlines with better performance are better run, with happier employees. ASA is the pits....

http://sltrib.com/business/ci_3090707

 

[Tram]

ASA is a horrible place to work. Crew scheduling is an absolute nightmare.

Do you think any of this will change with the future of ASA/Skywest?

 

[fsworld]

Before you turn down a job at ASA you need to know both sides of the story. Remember most people on this board are here because they are pissed off already. Ive been here for 4 months now, schedualing is not bad. Hell, most days Ive been on reserve I havent even been called. If I have been called it was to go do an out and back flight. I call after the flight and theyed told me to go home every time. The contract negotiations, most pilots dont seen to care, as for you (amnd them) remember that you came in knowing what the contract and the pay was. If it gets better great, if not owe well. As for the Delta pay stuff, if that happens it will hurt the pay at every regional. Remember ASA and Skywest, CHQ all fly for Delta and would all be effected the same way. As for reserve the guys before me spent a month on it and then got a relief line, im looking to do the same.

Just remember this, in 3 years when ASA has a nice new contract, we are hiring, and the delta/skywest thing is ironed out everyone will be flocking here to work. It runs in cycles. Just remember Express Jet could furlough tomorrow, Skywest could furlough tomorrow, ASA could furlough tomorrow. No one is any better than the other in the grand plan of things, only the current.

 

[Doo Doo Brown]

I second fsworld. I've been at ASA for about 9months now and have had nothing but good experiences in all aspects. I'm holding good lines with about 13-16 days off and have never been bothered by scheduling. If you get an interview at least stop on by and check us out.

 

["GO AROUND"]

Damn Fins,
The next thing I know I'll be reading in flight deck news that you walked into an ATR prop or jumped off the C tower cause you were so miserable at ASA. Do you have more than 5 years in here? Cause that's to many if you ask managment. So go get a real job cause they obviously don't think what we do is.

There are worse companies and better companies to work for right now and I used to work a one of the worst (TSA). ASA is far from the best or worst and has the potential to go either way. We should really be advising people to get their head checked for wanting to fly for the airlines right now. Some of us(Fins and I) seem to be too far gone to be helped. Take in all the advice, research what company fits your life best and make your decision.

 

[AV8700]

Before you turn down a job at ASA you need to know both sides of the story. Remember most people on this board are here because they are pissed off already. Ive been here for 4 months now, schedualing is not bad. Hell, most days Ive been on reserve I havent even been called. If I have been called it was to go do an out and back flight. I call after the flight and theyed told me to go home every time. The contract negotiations, most pilots dont seen to care, as for you (amnd them) remember that you came in knowing what the contract and the pay was. If it gets better great, if not owe well. As for the Delta pay stuff, if that happens it will hurt the pay at every regional. Remember ASA and Skywest, CHQ all fly for Delta and would all be effected the same way. As for reserve the guys before me spent a month on it and then got a relief line, im looking to do the same.

Just remember this, in 3 years when ASA has a nice new contract, we are hiring, and the delta/skywest thing is ironed out everyone will be flocking here to work. It runs in cycles. Just remember Express Jet could furlough tomorrow, Skywest could furlough tomorrow, ASA could furlough tomorrow. No one is any better than the other in the grand plan of things, only the current.

Wow, a 4 month wonder with a complete grasp on the mood at ASA. I think the bar of soap is soon to land at your feet.
Unless your 23, still living at home, starring at yourself in the mirror in uniform on your off day, we do care about the contract at ASA.

That being said, never turn down an interview.

 

[fsworld]

Wow, a 4 month wonder with a complete grasp on the mood at ASA. I think the bar of soap is soon to land at your feet.
Unless your 23, still living at home, starring at yourself in the mirror in uniform on your off day, we do care about the contract at ASA.

That being said, never turn down an interview.

23 would make me old but no i dont stand in the mirror and look at myself. I know ASA isnt perfect but its not that bad either. I came from a few years of 135 charter, now thats punishment. Im not saying pilots dont care about the contract but everyone here came in with the current contract or a worse contract. The only guys that really seem down are the ones that paid for training years ago. And living on this salary, living at home would be nice! But again, I came into it knowing that and next year it will be more than the average college graduate will make after college.

 

[General Lee]

Go to COEX (Expressjet).


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[~~~^~~~]

It all depends on your expectations. The first year I was here I got transferred to DFW against my will, was paying for two houses, sitting around bored on reserve, flying naps in the E120, getting junior manned when I was 1,000 miles away from base for .98 hours of block time and made $12,200 for the year. The strange thing is - I was happy because I was flying airplanes. Those are the shoes Doo Doo Brown and FS World (short for Flight Simulator?) are apparently in. They are happy because they are "airline pilots."

Now I make 5 times that amount and hold schedules as a CA in my chosen domicile. But I get mad when the phone rings at 02:30 several times a month on my off days (plus every holiday) to junior man me. I get mad that Crew Scheduling uses a calling card and tells my children "it is one of your daddy's friends," tricking them on the phone. I get mad that our Company has an ASAP program to report pilots to the FAA (which starts certificate action) while denying pilots an ASAP program without negotiating it into the contract. I get mad that crew scheduling can run you up to 02: 00 into your off day and not compensate you and can junior man you without regard for seniority (ever day off is a day of reserve at time and a half at this airline) You think you can drink a beer on your day off - think again. They junior manned a friend of mine and assigned him a trip while he was int he middle of a lake in a Bass boat holding a beer in one hand and a pole in the other. And yes he got a trip failure / occurrence when he no show'd despite the fact he was physiologically incapable of operating the airplane.

A slave is someone who has no control of their schedule or their life. We are slaves.

Another friend of mine was driving home to be with his dying mother. He was junior manned and threatened. He turned down the assignment. His mother died. ASA fired him. That is the sort of airline this is.

A professional pilot is someone who asks how much a job pays before asking what kind of airpane they will be flying. Over the years you realize that this is a profession and you begin to want to be treated like a professional. ASA would prefer that you left the Company when you reach that point in your professional life. Our current president put the number at 5 and 1/2 years, which is about right.

In balance some corporate / 135 jobs are like ASA. You have an boss who holds your Certificate out to the FAA every time he screws up and you have no control over your schedule. If you like that sort of thing, could use the excercise picketing, and like to stand around a barrell burning wood with your union buddies this winter - welcome aboard. Just don't expect much.

 

[capt. crunch]

Come to ZW, Philly is *************************in Great. Everyday, ask somebody to kick you in the nuts once or twice real hard, thats about where moral is right now. If you can deal with that, Air Wiskey is for you. Did I mention the schedules......

 

[Superpilot92]

XJET

Just my 2 pennies

 

[Tram]

So ~~~^~~~ - why are you still there?

I have been looking at CHQ pretty hard, but lately, SkyWest, ASA, XJet and Pinnacle have gotten a glance or two..

I'm not really worried about the plane I get put in.. QOL is a big deal to me... I'm also trying to decide if I want to try and commute or not.. I could commute to ATL with zero problems and it's a 30 minute hop.. I could do the same to MEM...

I may even be able to pull off a commute to Xjet, if I was based in Houston, eventually..

For a guy trying to get into the Regionals, this stuff is very hard to chose.. Upgrade times - do they matter? Of course, but they always change it seems like, also like everyone says one day your airline is top-o-da-heap and then the next it's getting drug around on the ground...

Seems like people at CHQ and Xjet are very happy where they are at.. who knows.. I guess we'll see..

 

[Meiguy]

I work at XJT and am enjoying it for the most part. I have some of the same gripes as everyone else, but overall I think the quality of life here is pretty good. I'm starting to get some decent schedules and rarely have to deal with scheduling and have never been juniormanned. I also commute out of ATL to EWR by choice and haven't had too much problems. Its tough at times during the summer, but once the CASS systems gets implemented it should help out alot. Good luck

 

[146guy]

Don't gamble with you're career man, come to AWAC. I believe we are in the running for the best airline on the planet. We have 70 jet powered 1900's getting ready to DOMINATE the east coast, and we're currently buying as many 146's as we can find to open a large west coast market. With all this growth about to occur, upgrades will surely run around the 6 month mark. Come join our little party bud.

 

[Jungle Prop]

Don't listen to Fins, he always thinks the world is caving in. ASA is by no means the best regional. But most regionals are all the same, they are and always will be regionals. Our pay is below Comairs, but our contract has also been expired three years. Sheduling sucks, no way around it. But once you get off first year pay and off reserve, life isnt too bad for a new hire. I love how the guys that have been here ten years complain about how crappy it is, yet their the guys you talk to in the crew lounge who don't have any apps out anywhere and dont want to leave because it would be a paycut initially. They make 70 grand and don't look any further down the road. The most important factor would be an airline with a base you want to live at. Right now CHQ and COEX look the best, but who knows down the road. ASA will be a pretty good job once we get a new contract with better work rules. I've worked at other crappy airlines with no contract and work rules and find it amusing when people who dont know any better compalin about regionals. It is what it is.

 

[FlyinPiker]

Don't gamble with you're career man, come to AWAC. I believe we are in the running for the best airline on the planet. We have 70 jet powered 1900's getting ready to DOMINATE the east coast, and we're currently buying as many 146's as we can find to open a large west coast market. With all this growth about to occur, upgrades will surely run around the 6 month mark. Come join our little party bud.

Have you ever worked at Air Wisconsin............?

yea man....but that's nuthin...

Have you ever worked at Air Wisconsin........ON WEED!!

 

[sweptback]

Don't listen to Fins, he always thinks the world is caving in. ASA is by no means the best regional. But most regionals are all the same, they are and always will be regionals. Our pay is below Comairs, but our contract has also been expired three years. Sheduling sucks, no way around it. But once you get off first year pay and off reserve, life isnt too bad for a new hire. I love how the guys that have been here ten years complain about how shootty it is, yet their the guys you talk to who don't have any apps out anywhere and dont want to leave because it would be a paycut initially. They make 70 grand and don't look any further down the road. The most important factor would be an airline with a base you want to live at. Right now CHQ and COEX look the best, but who knows down the road. ASA will be a pretty good job once we get a new contract with better work rukes. Ive worked at other shoottier airlines with no contract and work rules and find it amusing when people who dont know any better compalin about regionals. It is what it is.

That is very true. Most of the people that are vocal about complaining about their particular airline have not worked for others in the regional industry. Those that have worked for multiple airlines know that the crap happens at every airiline and not just the one they're presently at.

 

[Tram]

It also seems the same people complain about the same stuff, over and over and over..

 

[jehtplane]

It all depends on your expectations. The first year I was here I got transferred to DFW against my will, was paying for two houses, sitting around bored on reserve, flying naps in the E120, getting junior manned when I was 1,000 miles away from base for .98 hours of block time and made $12,200 for the year. The strange thing is - I was happy because I was flying airplanes. Those are the shoes Doo Doo Brown and FS World (short for Flight Simulator?) are apparently in. They are happy because they are "airline pilots."

Now I make 5 times that amount and hold schedules as a CA in my chosen domicile. But I get mad when the phone rings at 02:30 several times a month on my off days (plus every holiday) to junior man me. I get mad that Crew Scheduling uses a calling card and tells my children "it is one of your daddy's friends," tricking them on the phone. I get mad that our Company has an ASAP program to report pilots to the FAA (which starts certificate action) while denying pilots an ASAP program without negotiating it into the contract. I get mad that crew scheduling can run you up to 02: 00 into your off day and not compensate you and can junior man you without regard for seniority (ever day off is a day of reserve at time and a half at this airline) You think you can drink a beer on your day off - think again. They junior manned a friend of mine and assigned him a trip while he was int he middle of a lake in a Bass boat holding a beer in one hand and a pole in the other. And yes he got a trip failure / occurrence when he no show'd despite the fact he was physiologically incapable of operating the airplane.

A slave is someone who has no control of their schedule or their life. We are slaves.

Another friend of mine was driving home to be with his dying mother. He was junior manned and threatened. He turned down the assignment. His mother died. ASA fired him. That is the sort of airline this is.

A professional pilot is someone who asks how much a job pays before asking what kind of airpane they will be flying. Over the years you realize that this is a profession and you begin to want to be treated like a professional. ASA would prefer that you left the Company when you reach that point in your professional life. Our current president put the number at 5 and 1/2 years, which is about right.

In balance some corporate / 135 jobs are like ASA. You have an boss who holds your Certificate out to the FAA every time he screws up and you have no control over your schedule. If you like that sort of thing, could use the excercise picketing, and like to stand around a barrell burning wood with your union buddies this winter - welcome aboard. Just don't expect much.

Dude, do we work at the same airline? That really sucks if this stuff has happened to you and I would assume that the union got your buddy his job back, if not then their may have been some other circumstances with him that you may not know about, two sides to every story. Screw scheduling is definitely guilty of doing some ridiculous things, that is what our union is for, to resolve occurences and wrongful terminations. Personally anytime I have been jr manned, it was because I was the most junior person available, and I did the research to make sure. I am sure that there have been instances where the company went out of senoirity order, but what is to say the did not try contacting that person and they did not answer the phone, so they move to the next person. there have been quite a few changes in management over the past several days, and it has been ALL for the better. I personally have not experienced any of these scenarios mentioned above and it is unfortunate if that is exactly how things went down, but like I said two sides to every story. I think that Skywest is going to try and make us a better airline both operationally and with the employee groups. ASA has the potential to be a great company, hopefully the steps taken in recent days are in the right direction, only time will tell. As for which airline to go too, it's a crapshoot, who knows, upgrades at airlines change like the wind, unfortunately right now we are all at the mercy of our mainline partners, and everyone is in panic mode, so which airline to go too, I would stay close to home. One more thing, why get mad when crew scheduling calls at those hours, I would laugh and not answer the phone.