Jetblue Bases

[Stugatz78]

Airline stuff is pretty new to me. Im sched for an interview at Jetblue on Jun29. From my understanding JFK is the junior base? How senior and or how long until one can hold a line at LGB? And if anybody out there does it how is it commuting from the west coast to go to work in JFK,BOS,FLL??? Hopefully all goes well for the JUN29 guys and thanks for any feedback!

 

[charley]

Hello,

First of all good luck on your interview!! Any advise,...be yourself..if they cant take that, they dont deserve you!!.

I am a west coast commuter myself and commute from sea to jfk. This is a long commute. You cannot put lipstick on this pig and make it look pretty. There are some hard realities assosiated with it,and many variables as well.
I will tell you what I think and how I deal with the west coast commute.

1. I love Seattle and I am not moving. I can only whip out the violin for myself because I'm the one that chooses to commute.

2. Out of seattle including all airlines there are 6 directs a day to jfk. I normally hop on the noon flight that gets in around 9pm.

3. I commute in the day before and not on the red eye. Some people can do this, some cannot. I honestly cannot think of a better way to hate my commute than bye commuting on a redeye. Think about this...anyone who is a commuter that has an early show has to come in the day b-4 anyway...

4. I bid early shows. Unless you are positioned for a truely "commutable" line" ie..late show on the first day and able to commute in, and if dine early on the last day,ie able to commute home...I want to garantee myself getting home on my last day....ie early shows= early sign offs for end of your trips.
5. people say" how do you deal with the time zone change"..I simply try to keep it in one zone the best I can...ie..i just tell myself I stayed up late last night ect. ect.

6. Your commute really depends on where you live. If you are commuting from sfo, lax, oak, sea....your golden...lots of options and opportunities. You would find your commute somewhat easier that some Florida commuters...IE lots of pilots, lots of commuters. Bottom line is, Not that many people are stupid enough to commute across the country, so your compitition for the seats is limited. I sit in the jumpseat maybe twice a year.

Our bases: Longbeach is the senior base...very little movement either. We are planning our west coast expansion, which means someday, there will be another west coast base...probably in the bay area. I see us flying out of lax and making lgb and lax a co domicile, and likewise in the bay area with sfo and oak.

Hope Ive been some help and good luck, where all counting on you!! C

 

[Stugatz78]

Thanks for the valuable info I appreciate it. I look forward to the interview it seems like a really cool place to work. And it seems like the commute is do-able from the west side. Are crash pads easy to come by in JFK? And how long would it take a new hire to be based in LGB?

 

[charley]

I cannot in good faith answer when it would open up. The facts, however, are that its senior in both seats. What does that mean..possibly...That the senior fo's are next in line for upgrade in the 320...and with our "new" long call/short call rules...they may bite at the 320 even if they sit on reserve in jfk...but who knows. Long Beach cannot grow, however...because it is a slotted airport...and the slots are full...so as I said in my last post,...we will eventually grow to another lax basin airport sooner than later...and it probably be a co-domicile. As far as days off if you commute from lbg to jfk...once the 320 is staffed carrectly, which in crrently is not, ...in a perfect world..no wx, delays, ect ect...you could...spend, possibly, 50% of your time on reserve from home..I repeat, in a perfect world.

 

[On Your Six]

Schedules for LGB based pilots suck... I have seen them and they involve a lot of transcon flights and day-rest flights (exhausting - arrive at destination at 11AM and leave later that day on a red-eye at 11PM). There may be a few open slots at LGB coming up because I know a few JB pilots who are actively looking to get out of JB and LGB - one has been hired by Southwest, another is close to securing a Netjets job out of LAX and the other has made progress with UPS and is very optimistic.

 

[Longhorn]

Southwest and UPS I understand....but netjets? Friends there like it but say its night vs day compared to 121 airline flying.

 

[Dart]

I agree..i worked at NJA. I would never have left a 121 job for fracs.

Southwest and UPS I understand....but netjets? Friends there like it but say its night vs day compared to 121 airline flying.

 

[Stugatz78]

Thanks for all the quality info... Hopefully there will be some expansion on the westside it sounds like it will make things better for everyone? Im lookin forward to the interview!

 

[clickclickboom]

Southwest and UPS I understand....but netjets? Friends there like it but say its night vs day compared to 121 airline flying.

Honestly Longhorn I flew fractionals for over 7 years and loved it. You had a set schedule of days on and days off BUT during those 7 days on you never knew where you were going. ( which i enjoyed )

Given a choice between my 2 leg commute to my crashpad in NY followed by a 5 day trip with red eyes and daysleeps --vs-- a first class upgrade paid ticket to the plane followed by hilton garden inns, mostly day flying, and a few ny or bos overnights and a night or two in cabo or grand cayman.

Honestly if I thought the company I was working for was a viable long term option I would have stayed.

A trans con commuter will becomee quite familiar with the 4 hour crash pad sleep going into day one followed by the no sleep red eye to a 2000 mile commute home on day 5 followed by 24 hours of recovery at home with the kids using your head as a trampoline.

 

[On Your Six]

Southwest and UPS I understand....but netjets? Friends there like it but say its night vs day compared to 121 airline flying.

I think it is happening a lot more these days. Netjets is the absolute leader in its market by a wide margin and it is growing (Marquis Jet cards are selling out). You will always find wealthy people looking for ways to spend their money - in both good and bad economies (somebody always profits in either market). Plus, with Netjets you get a lot of variety vs. a set number of destinations. It's true that the fractional lifestyle (especially 7/7 schedule) is not for everyone.

My buddy who is leaving JB didn't care for the LGB schedules or the constant concern about other LCCs encroaching on their market (SWA, AirTran, Spirit, now VA and Skybus). Have you seen all of the upcoming aircraft deliveries for all of these carriers? That's a lot of capacity and new, conflicting routes are inevitable... It was too nerve-wracking for him. He also liked the "VIP" mission aspect of things at Netjets. Looking at the comparisons between Netjets and JB, the pay at Netjets ain't bad either after the first few years and the benefits are better from what I hear. To each his own I guess............