Atlas interview - HELP!!!

[Capt.LongThrust]

I am by no means an expert but have asked a few of the same questions. Here are the responses by a buddy of mine.

All: This is very much appreciated. I can't thank everyone enough. As the interview nears, some questions remain. Atlas/Polar specific, if you have the time, at your leisure, if you wouldn't mind answering the following questions:

Stansted: I understand Stansted. However, let's say I'm in FRA (or anywhere else within central europe), would the company work with you and buy you a ticket from there to wherever your mission originates?As I understand it very few of the trips originate out of Standsted. Therefore the company will pay for a ticket from Stansted to Paris for example. If that amount is equal or less from FRA to Paris then they will buy that ticket for you.

Deployment: I believe I understand the 'norm' to be as 17 on, 13 off. So, jumpseating home each way, am I correct to understand 11 days off now? Or do they typically give you 14 days off? I have heard, however, that they will occasionally assign you 17 on at the end of the month, followed by 17 on at the beginning of the next month. 34 days - and my wife says - uh WHAT!?! So, would someone please give me a little more of an idea of what I can expect? And in addition, the more senior you get, how does your schedule become? Are there such things as 1 week on, 1 week off? I know they have a preferential bidding system. So as far as back to back 17 day stretches, I guess that would be possible.

Base: At present, (if Atlas) when would I be able to bid back to the US? <--Biggie for my wife...Again talking to a buddy of mine (a new hire) he said anywhere from 7 to 18 months. Depends on a lot of things continued hiring, airplane awarded. From what he said on the -400 there are approx. 40 F/O's with half wanting to be there. Figure around 5 a month in class do the math.

International phone calling: How on earth do you stay in touch with your family and remain financially thrifty? Also, a biggie...I have personally used AT&T rechargable cards from Sam's or Walmart. All you need are access numbers from the ATT website. Seems to be fairly cheap depending on which side of the world you are on.

Family travel benefits: Spouse and parents I suppose. Is DL ID 90, NW ID 75 correct?No idea.

Anyone have any idea of the planned hiring forecast?I think they are running a class July 11, one in Aug., and one in Sep. Then I think they will resume after the holidays in Jan.

Is there a training contract? No.

Jumpseating back and forth to europe. I assume you're part of the CASS system. How hard is jumpseating across the pond? Like any other commute except longer. Plan ahead and have some backups.

Any further interview advice/sim profile help is of course always welcome. Sim is very basic Departure, Hold, APPR. and Landing.

And if you have the time, a schedule example would be excellent! No idea. Again it is preferential bidding.

Thank you in advance to the ones who take the time to answer! If I end up with the Atlas/Polar team the beer to you is on me!

 

[jwes]

Great stuff guys please keep it coming... it really is giving us all a better understanding of whats been going on over there..

Here is a really dumb question, is Polar / Atlas a Part 135 or is it
FAR Part 121?

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

Great stuff guys please keep it coming... it really is giving us all a better understanding of whats been going on over there..

Here is a really dumb question, is Polar / Atlas a Part 135 or is it
FAR Part 121?

121..

 

[Arkady]

Regarding cheap intl' phone calls.... A lot of the folks are using Skype (skype.com) or similar services. You make calls through your laptop (which with this kind of job is nice to have anyway) & if you are making calls to another computer it is FREE (every pilots favorite word)...but you can also make them to any landline or cell phone as well and they are still at a pretty good rate compared to intl' calls using AT&T, etc... If you go to the Skype website they have a list of all their rates for all the various countries.

Of course if you are STN based it is still a good idea to get an intl' cell phone (for example I have a quad-band mobile AT&T/motorola phone...it works pretty much everywhere except for Japan & Korea) so you are free to travel around Europe and not be tied down to a motel room waiting for scheduling to call...or constantly calling them (only to be put on hold) just to check in to see if they have been trying to reach you (you can see how that would be a big headache in short order). Also, you can text message from just about everywhere these days too...great for cheap & quick messages.

Hope this helps & best regards.

 

[BDA by Clipper]

Interview dates slowing down?

Capt.LongThrust and Arkady, thanks a ton. I have heard of this skype sytem, but don't know very much about it. I'll need to check it out when I get back from my three day. Anyone else have any experience with this or have an even better deal?


I do know for a fact that August interview dates are tentative at this point. So, maybe they are indeed slowing down for the year. My interview date is supposed to be in the beginning of August. We shall see.

Does anyone know about the family travel benefits?

I as well did not have an internal recommendation as far as I know...

Clipper

 

[GogglesPisano]

Ahh, to fly the B747. This is a great thread with great info and none of the usual bickering and trolling. I just want to let everyone at Polar/Atlas know that I appreciate it.

Updating and waiting patiently for a call.

BTW, how hard is it to j/s on Polar/Atlas from JFK to Stansted? Are there usually seats available? Are there even flights between that city pair?

 

[JohnnyP]

great thread

I ran into an Atlas guy a few days ago commuting to get to the airplane. He's been an FO since he was hired in '98. Are they hiring FE's only or do they hire into the right seat also? he had nothing but good things to say about the company, pretty good stuff.

 

[FoxBravo]

The newest class has both PFE's and FO's. They hire directly into the right seat.

 

[Beechnut13]

As far as the Skype thing goes....the calls are VERY cheap! And the quality is very good as well. I spoke to someone calling me from Hong Kong using Skype(I was in Pittsburgh at the time), and the quality was excellent and there was only the usual slight delay with calls from that long of a distance. They are also comming out with a wifi phone that you can use from any hotspot or wifi access point making it very mobile and freeing you up from your computer.

No travel benies at Atlas, except for jumpseating as I understand it over there.

Good luck all.

 

[FlyboyPhil]

Do you guys have a trip/duty rig or is it just the monthly guarantee? Wondering what you get paid for sitting in the hotel for a couple days in Reykjavik or some other garden spot.

 

[jwes]

Great thread guys, thanks for all the info, please keep the questions and answers comming.....

Thanks All