ASA Hiring

[73belair]

nope

 

[wil]

nfg- Sorry no commuter policy. We will have one in this new contract (I hope).

 

[FL000]

Just got a call for a Feb. interview! I was hoping someone could answer these questions for me:

1. How exaclty does the reseve system work? I have heard people complaining about it, but never any specifics.

2. How long would it be approximately before one can hold a line in DFW or ATL?

3. How is the commute with sitting on reserve? I understand its a 2 hour call out, but what time do you usually start your duty day?

Thanks

1) The reserve system is less about what is has and more about what it doesn't have. It is full of loopholes, too many to describe here, and some I probably haven't even seen yet. For instance, one might be on reserve for the month starting at 9am and ending at 12am. But if crew scheduling suddenly needs someone for a nap (stand up, high speed), they can put you on rest at, say, noon, then have you duty in at 9pm and be on duty all night. You'll get about 4 hours sleep and fly home in the morning. At that time, they can decide if they want to keep you on the "nap" rotation, or return you to your original 9-12 rotation.

Is is FAA legal? Sure. Is it contractual? Well, it's not NOT contractual. Are you actually getting rest from noon until 9pm? Of course not. But there's nothing in the contract to stop it. This is just a single example of myriad kinds of things people are talking about in our reserve system. There are holes that need to be plugged.

2) ATL - years...probably 2-3??? Just a WAG.

DFW - years also, but definitely fewer than ATL. Maybe 2.5. I don't know. I'll need some backup here.

3) Duty days start at 5am, 6am, 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am and noon. Those run either 15 hours or end at midnight, whichever is sooner. There are also "nap" reserve slots that start at 6pm and 7pm and end at midnight. Those are relatively senior because of the commutability and minimum time away from home. If you're on the daytime reserves, you'll spend 5 days a week at your crashpad or flying, and two days at home.

The exception to this is your 4 "golden days" which are always in a row and cannot be changed after final schedule is released. The other guaranteed six days off are usually in pairs, but can be changed and moved as needed by scheduling.

That's all I have for now. I'm sure you'll have more questions, and I'm sure others can add to what I've written. All whining aside, it's still a great place to be. It's a really good bunch of guys and gals working here, and the vast majority of us enjoy working at ASA.

 

[79%N1]

ASA hopefulls ---- also remember, at THE CURRENT rate, assuming things change little with growth and/or attrition --- the upgrade times at ASA are on pace to be 6-8 years. The ONLY hope is new aircraft, which I personally don't think ASA will see for a few years to come. Delta is the latest airline to subscribe to the 'contracting out' of labor, in the form of multiple affiliate carriers. This spells nothing but bad news for us at ASA and Comair. As a new hire, you will need to climb about 800 or so spots before you upgrade. I personally moved up 50 #'s in the past 15 months. At that rate, it would be about 12-14 years for me to upgrade. Our only hope is a spurt of hiring - somewhere!

Anyway, good luck. All in all ASA is a great place.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

somebody will always find a reason to feel discriminated or that their rights have been violated.
I personally think it should go by age because the oldest in the class will retire first and the youngsters in the class will have their opportunity to move to better bases/equipment.

 

[601Pilot]

ASA upgrades

I'm not sure where you got your info, but the
last upgrade awards were about 3.5~4 years on the
RJ and less on the ATR. The RJ awards are for DFW, of course, and the ATR for ATL.

It should definitely pick up some this year with
the 15 70s coming online and the increase in
attrition of Capts. leaving to Airtran and SWA.

 

[DDpaysoff]

Anyone who thinks the wholly owneds are going to stop receiving jets next year have been fooled by managment.

 

[Medeco]

I agree with the last two post

I have been commuting from ATL to DFW since March 2003 when I got out of training.

The summer months suck, but after school started back I have not had much problems, you can always jumpseat on other airlines too since DFW is busy and big, a big help during tight times. American and Airtran are always helpful. Airtran is expanding in DFW too, so that helps.

I actually held a relief line and nap line immediatly out of training, but went backwards in seniority on the CRJ200 as the EMB120 was retired and those guys came over.

So, I have commuted since August 2003 on nothing but reserve with a wife and kid back home in ATL. Overall it sucks, for freetime but the job is good and the people are great. The Delta pass priv is untouchable industry wide, even though it will be hard to use until you accrue vacation time, this alone is a major benefit to me, because I have not traveled abroad much prior to ASA.


RESERVE is chosen random. I can add a bit more though.

Every month the reserve pilots are printed out on a sheet which scheduling has. Each reserve period had a certain number of pilots

RES06(6AM) = 10 pilots
RES07 = 10 pilots and so on...

So, that printout is random in how the 10 pilots names are listed within that reserve period. When they need someone they basically look at which period best fits the needs of the trip and then they call out who is available.

That is a VERY basic explanation of the system, and when things go bad with weather and such, the system falls apart and they scramble, and give the shaft to people in various ways, too many to explain.

I also understand that the person in scheduling that "runs" it, as I would describe, not manages it. He is from the old school ASA and he is rumored to be anti technology, so the company is not using tools in the computer they already have available. I have no idea for sure if that is true, but it sure comes across that way.

So, to end on a better note, I am off reserve and holding at least relief lines as of Jan 2004, which is overall much better, because I can trade trips and pick up open time to replace any reserve days they give me within that relief line. Bottom line is you can manauver your schedule on Relief, and your their B1tch on reserve.

Good Luck,
Medeco

 

[bailout]

>>I'm not sure where you got your info, but the
last upgrade awards were about 3.5~4 years on the
RJ and less on the ATR<<

I think they are talking more about newhires, than existing pilots, and it depends on how many senior guys decide to stay as F/Os or bid over. There are @ 285 F/Os in ATL on the RJ right now, so if they started having capt classes of 10 a month, those bottom guys wont see capt for 2.5 years at best. Considering those guys have already been here 2 years or more, thats where the 4.5 - 5 years at best comes from. And also considering that we are not having ten a month right now, with the exception of a few here and there, that figure will double to 8-9 years.

 

[79%N1]

Exactly my point. If they started today upgrading 10/month - which they won't - it will take me an additional 5 years to upgrade. That will be a total of about 6.5 years. Now, we all know there are no plans for that kind of upgrading here. So, for every year that 120 pilots don't upgrade, add onother year to the wait. Sounds great, huh! Not like the old days up 8-12 months to jet upgrade. Hopefully, FO pay will be greatly addressed in these contract talks, but I doubt it.

 

[wil]

Don't forget that the company will award upgrades based on the required hours, etc, in the contract. There will be upgrades out of seniority order.

 

[sleepy]

Reserve is great. Whenever I don't want to fly, or want certain holidays off that I can't hold on a regular line, I bid reserve. I flew 12 hours in November and about 15 in December working about 4 days each month.

When I was hired (over three years ago) you were assigned to your initial aircraft based on whatever the "needs of the company" were at the time. This was in clear violation of our contract, which states that you will bid on aircraft based on your seniority within your new hire class. When I pointed this out to the B#$&h that was in charge of newhire training, she told me that I had a "bad attitude". When I pointed it out to an ALPA Rep, they told me that they were giving the company a pass on aircraft assignments because (at the time) they were having problems finding people that could or would upgrade to Captain on the E-120. Those of us with the most experience were assigned to the E-120 and told to expect to upgrade within one month. Naturally, that didn't happen. What is the moral of this story, ASA can do whatever they want with regards to newhire aircraft assignment.

 

[crjfo2b]

Anyones who got an interview tell me how long it was between the time u sent your resume in and you were called? i faxed mine the other day..just hoping..

 

[patriotflier]

One other thing with the reserve system that was not mentioned.

Monthly bidding for reserve lines. When you bid U are bidding for 4 "Golden Days off" each month. After that scheduling assigns U the other six days off. So it has happened to me in the past that I would be on for 6 days straight and off one day followed by 4-6 days on again. I think you may have gotten the impression that you have 5 on and 2 off all the time. That is more the exception than the rule. In addition if you can hold weekends off for your GDO's it does not mean U will have weekends off for the whole month. You may end up with midweek days off.

Scheduling is trying to make life on reserve a little easier however. Now we can submit a request for our reserve time period after our award before the schedule is finalized for each month. However there is no gaurantee U will get what U want and definately no way to know if they are being fair. ANother good thing they have just started is being able to swap your reserve days with yourself so U can move your day off. That is of course provided that scheduling has the coverage to approve your request and it is compliant with the contract and regs.

DO NOT COMMUTE TO RESERVE. I did it and if U do plan on being away from home 23-25 nights a month. How so you may ask. Well if U have to be on duty anytime before 9 am you have to fly in the night before and U generally miss the last flight home after your days on, so you spend another night at the crash pad. Now u have 2 days off which you commuted home on the first day off and then you have to leave the next evening to be back on duty. MOVE TO where your gonna be based if your on reserve.

Good Luck

Go Pats!

 

[ductleak]

packet ?

1. After the packet, how long would you think that it will take to get an interview?

2. When are classes scheduled?

3. RFP on new regional jets -- any word on this?