COMAIR OR STAY w/ EAGLE?

[yankee]

I currently work for eagle(1 year) and was just invited for Interview with Comair. Any COmair guys shed some light on QOL.?..How long on reserve?...Is it worth sucking up the 240$ a week, living on peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches?

Although its not that great at eagle.

Second year pay, contract and new bases opening are sucking me in to Comair.

All I recently heard about Comair is that they are starting to hire and opening new bases.

Thans for any input

 

[Flyer1015]

If you're only in year one at Eagle, I say it's probably worth it to move. Eagle gets its last jet this summer, and then no more jets, and NO improvement in the flowbAAck situation. No one has been recalled yet. Comair on the other hand is getting 25-35 jets, and your pay will freeze at second year level, which is higher than any Eagle F/O pay. If you were anything like 4-6 years with Eagle, I'd say stick it out, but with only one year, I'd go ahead with Comair. At least you won't have flowbacks to look forward to!

 

[yankee]

good point. Excellent advise. Thanks alot!

 

[172driver]

QOL is pretty good at CMR. $23/hr 1st yr. $37.18/hr 2nd yr. 11-12 days off for reserves, 14-15 for junior lineholders, 85-90 hrs of pay per month. Pay is block or better per leg, with cancellation and displacement credit. 13.5 hr max scheduled duty day. 14.5 actual. Read the contract for more detail.

Reserve life in CVG pretty much sucks as the company holds back a lot of open time to allot to reserves. They are seemingly always understaffed and reserves get run pretty ragged. I think there will be less of this in the new bases as they are much smaller and you just can't run it that way.

Nobody can honestly tell you about time on reserve or upgrade because of the new bases opening. Depends pretty much where you end up and where the company decides to put the new growth.

I would guess all new hires in class now will end up in GSO and after that, they will go to JFK until it is filled. I see GSO staying small and JFK growing. I also believe there will not be much movement from the CVG FO list to either domicile except to upgrade. Thus, anyone who gets in at JFK now may spend a very short time on reserve. Also, upgrades at JFK are going to go very junior, IMO. Probably around the 2.5-3 yr range.

Overall, a good company to work for. Hope you like the northeast...

 

[AvJunke]

"Comair on the other hand is getting 25-35 jets, and your pay will freeze at second year level, which is higher than any Eagle F/O pay".

FYI: No new hire will be impacted by the pay freeze. If you were hired at Comair this summer by the time you reach your second anniversary date the pay freeze will have expired and you will go directly to third year pay. We have a lot of former Eagle guys/girls here and all the ones I talk to say they still believe they made the right choice in jumping ship. Most of them had several more years in at Eagle than you do. Good luck.

 

[MedFlyer]

We still don't know if Comair is getting any planes. It seems likely, but anything is possible in this industry. If the planes don't come, I'm not sure if Comair will be all that better of a place than Eagle.

One other thing to keep in mind, Comair may be sold. If sold, life at Comair could change dramatically depending on the buyer. If not sold, Comair could still have trouble if DL eventually ends up in BK.

 

[NRHPilot]

Head to Comair with that little seniority. A year and half ago I interviewed with three other Eagle FO's and we were all offered a job with Comair. However, with our seniority, none of us went. You will be making better money in the long run and have a way better contract. As long as you are not tied to a house or something, go interview in CVG. They seem to like Eagle pilots.

 

[ilkwamh2]

Don't try to outwit the system, you'll never win. If you like the bases here at Comair, bid for them and eventually you'll get it. On reserve, you can survive on $240 a week, there are a lot of cheap housing in Cincy, especially some crashpads for about $200-$250 a month. I've never been at Eagle so I can't tell you if it's better than Comair or not. At least come to the interview to checkout the place and see it for yourself, then make a decision. I think reserve will not be too long since there are about 20-30 new hires per month. Good luck!

-W

 

[miles otoole]

Can you say "concessions" at Comair? Don't worry-it'll start with DL in a few months and work its way down to CMR. Guarantee that $37 2nd year FO pay won't stick. Back down to $23.

 

[CRJ puppy]

Notice "...tool..." in the previous poster's screenname. That pretty much says it all. Good night.

 

[miles otoole]

Notice "...CRJ..." in thje previous posters screenname. That pretty much says it all. Good night.

 

[LaTechPilot2003]

I'm in the same boat as yankee on this one. I've been at Eagle a little over a year now and am looking to bail for another regional where I have a chance to upgrade this decade. I have my heart set on ExpressJet because I have family in Houston and it would be much easier to get to Louisiana to see family there since ASA pulled out of DFW, taking all the nonstop flights to AEX and LFT with them. I applied in Nov, but I called PeopleScout in Jan and guess that reset my app date (since I haven't gotten a call yet and heard from a buddy that interviewed and got hired this week that they are interviewing Nov apps right now). From what I was told, XJT is goin to run a newhire class of 16 every week from now until the end of the year and current newhires are being told to expect to upgrade in 2 yrs...so even if I don't get on until this summer, I should have just as many pilots junior to me at XJT that I currently have at Eagle. Now that Comair is hiring again, I have begun to seriously consider them. Wondering whether I should wait for XJT to call or apply to Comair...decisions, decisions.

 

[English]

Eagle is a hostile work environment...why stay and be miserable?

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=51512

 

[igneousy2]

...From what I was told, XJT is goin to run a newhire class of 16 every week from now until the end of the year and current newhires are being told to expect to upgrade in 2 yrs...so even if I don't get on until this summer, I should have just as many pilots junior to me at XJT that I currently have at Eagle...

It doesn't matter how many people are under you...it only matters how many people are above you.

I'll just say that I was hired at Eagle in 1999 and I have a resume in at ComAir. I am about 1700 on the seniority list...if you've been at Eagle a year it puts you at about 2500 or so give or take. Prior to 9/11 the seniority number for new captain upgrades went down about 40-50 a month on average. This was during a time when we were receiving 3-4 jets per month, all the major were hiring and American was hiring 100 pilots a month. With no new jets, it will probably move more like 10 or 20 numbers junior a month, if that. So if nothing drastic happens you will upgrade 40 months (3 years 4 months) after I do. I will not upgrade for at least a year AFTER AA starts recalling their Throw bAAcks. The big question is when will they begin recalling. Even if AA began recalling TODAY, you won't be a captain for at least 4-5 years from now.

With the increased cost of jet fuel...the economics of the RJ is not what it used to be. An RJ is not very efficient for the airline were it not for the fact that the crews (and rampers, and ticket agents, etc.) are cheap. Now fuel is the major cost in operating the airplane. In other words...WE AIN'T GETTING ANY NEW ONES ANYTIME SOON. In fact AMR cx'd a bunch of ERJ's last November remember? AMR didn't exercise the options on the CRJ's either. Once the last jets roll in this summer, you're going to be looking back to now, remembering these as "the good ol' days"


The problem with Eagle is we still got to take these throw bAAcks without new equipment to slow the domino effect. To make matters worse, we are retiring the SAABs over the next few years. You are going to see displacements on a scale Eagle pilots haven't seen since right after 9/11.

If you've only been here a year you ain't got the furlough protection, no matter how flimsey. There is a real good chance that you could be out on the street once these displacements get going...or worse...on the rock.

If ANYONE who was on the seniority list at Eagle on 9/12/01 went just about anywhere...they would be captains or at least very senior FO's at their new airline by now.

Good luck

 

[LaTechPilot2003]

...From what I was told, XJT is goin to run a newhire class of 16 every week from now until the end of the year and current newhires are being told to expect to upgrade in 2 yrs...so even if I don't get on until this summer, I should have just as many pilots junior to me at XJT that I currently have at Eagle...

I guess I was just referring to what little furlough protection I'd have with either company by having the same number of guys junior to me at both. I just think that the opportunity to upgrade would come a lot quicker at XJT since there will be no more flowbacks from CAL.