ASTAR Questions

[MDWCrashPad]

I saw some of the basics about Astar on Pilot Central, such as the pay and the monthly guarantee of 69 hours. I have heard that the schedules are good. Could some of you give me a little more information?

1. As an FE do you usually get only 69 hours of pay or is there a lot of overtime available?

2. Is there any incentive pay such as 1.5 over 75 hours?

3. I've heard that the weekend layovers are from Saturday morning until Monday evening so if your layover is in your home city you basically have a couple more days off. Is that true and can you often get your weekend bid?

4. I understand that upgrades may be rather slow. Do you think this will change?

5. Are there other ways to increase your salary such as going into the training department, and if so, is that very difficult to get into?

6.Anything else you can add would be great.

Thanks

 

[hvydriver]

Guarantee is 64, not 69.

 

[Fly Astar Jets]

I saw some of the basics about Astar on Pilot Central, such as the pay and the monthly guarantee of 69 hours. I have heard that the schedules are good. Could some of you give me a little more information?

1. As an FE do you usually get only 69 hours of pay or is there a lot of overtime available?

2. Is there any incentive pay such as 1.5 over 75 hours?

3. I've heard that the weekend layovers are from Saturday morning until Monday evening so if your layover is in your home city you basically have a couple more days off. Is that true and can you often get your weekend bid?

4. I understand that upgrades may be rather slow. Do you think this will change?

5. Are there other ways to increase your salary such as going into the training department, and if so, is that very difficult to get into?

6.Anything else you can add would be great.

Thanks

1) As Hvy stated, 64 is the number. OT for the S/O's is there but as always seniority rules. If you bid for it and no one else wants it, it's yours.

2) No. For trips that need to be assigned last min.:
FEA = 150%. If you are legal, available and on the FEA list for the trip in question (more often than not, it's for ILN) Sked. will call the list, top down, in seniority order. First person to accept is the winner.
JM = 200%. If no takers for FEA, Sked will now call the list, bottom up, and the first person to answer and is legal, is JM'ed for that trip.

3) Yes, it is true. But as always, if you're senior to hold it's yours. If not, try to trade for it.

4) That's a good question. No one knows for sure. My gut feeling is yes but to what extent I won't even try to guess.

5) Yes you can. If a slot opens, you interview so how difficult it turns out to be is up to you.

By your questions it sound like you have a good handle on the situation.

Hope this helped. Good Luck.

 

[Jetglow]

64 hour pay is based on a 13 pay period year (28 day bid/pay periods)....so if you are used to 12 pay periods it would equal out to 69 hours.

Who knows on upgrades... DHL doesn't seem to know what its doing most of the time and Astar bases its hiring on what DHL wants. You could be in the back seat for many years or upgrade in 1 year depending on what DHL thinks it wants.

If you are stuck in the back for many years....you will at least be making more than most major F/O's and Regional Captains plus the company contributes 9 to 15% of your salary to your 401k whether you contribute or not. The 7 on 7 off schedule is great and we do have 3 day (Sa, Su, Mo) weekend layovers. Will you be able to hold your hometown? That is another question. Could you get near your hometown......more likely and just rent a car or jumpseat.

I dont know of any airline you can go to and make more money right now.....UPS & Fed Ex are not hiring.

 

[DC8CRIVER]

Guarantee is 64, not 69.

Some airlines award schedules on a monthly basis and some award schedules on a four week basis. Astar and several others award bid schedules on this four week basis.

The APC website converts all the min guarentees to a "monthly" min guarentee allowing you to compare "apples to apples". The Astar min guarentee is 64 hours for four weeks which equals 13 bid periods a year or 69 hours for a "month" (30.33 +/- days) which is 12 bid periods a year.

8

 

[hvydriver]

Some airlines award schedules on a monthly basis and some award schedules on a four week basis. Astar and several others award bid schedules on this four week basis.

The APC website converts all the min guarentees to a "monthly" min guarentee allowing you to compare "apples to apples". The Astar min guarentee is 64 hours for four weeks which equals 13 bid periods a year or 69 hours for a "month" (30.33 +/- days) which is 12 bid periods a year.

8

True, but I figured they'd want to know that every 2 weeks, they get a min. check of 32 hrs. Esp. on probie pay.

 

[MDWCrashPad]

Thanks guys.

 

[cheyflyer]

I saw some of the basics about Astar on Pilot Central, such as the pay and the monthly guarantee of 69 hours. I have heard that the schedules are good. Could some of you give me a little more information?

1. As an FE do you usually get only 69 hours of pay or is there a lot of overtime available?

2. Is there any incentive pay such as 1.5 over 75 hours?

3. I've heard that the weekend layovers are from Saturday morning until Monday evening so if your layover is in your home city you basically have a couple more days off. Is that true and can you often get your weekend bid?

4. I understand that upgrades may be rather slow. Do you think this will change?

5. Are there other ways to increase your salary such as going into the training department, and if so, is that very difficult to get into?

6.Anything else you can add would be great.

Thanks

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=113118

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