Reserve life at Virgin

[ParrotheadPilot]

I'm wondering what reserve life at Virgin America is like. It seems that they'll stop taking deliveries of new planes until fall 2013 which means reserve for a while for anyone hired now. Any info on days off, commutability, or avg hour per month would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Tomct]

They are just running a test phase for long call reserve (12hrs) to see how it works out. Right now it is set up for 5 on and 3 off starting with a pm shift going to transition and then am shift the last day or two. It all depends on what type of crap is happening in SFO...GDP etc. If memory serves 11 days off in a 30 day month and 12 days off in a 31 day month. The reserve rules are not the greatest and we have been working on improvements the entire time I have been here, so they are getting better, just not as fast as we would like. Good Luck

 

[hyflyin]

I'm wondering what reserve life at Virgin America is like. It seems that they'll stop taking deliveries of new planes until fall 2013 which means reserve for a while for anyone hired now. Any info on days off, commutability, or avg hour per month would be appreciated. Thanks

11 off for 30 day month, 12 for 31 day month, won't break guarantee usually, commute in on first day by 1530, release last day by noon sometimes, unless they use you for an outback which seems to happen all to often. Rules are coming very slooooooowly, which is part of the reason for the card signing currently going on. Forget about long call, only running a few lines, testing in May, have no idea if it will be there the next month.

 

[Flyer1015]

19 reserve days owed to the company per month, so 11 off in a 30 day month and 12 off in a 31 day month. Usually have three 5-day reserve stretches and one four-day stretch of reserve = 19 reserve days. Day 1 of reserve usually starts 3:30pm so usually you can commute in on day one. Last day reserve is an am window, 3am to 3pm, so you can call and try and get released at noon. They could throw an out and back, and you have to do that (no guarantee you'll be done by 3pm). As for averages, it seems that guys are starting to fly a lot. There are people on reserve flying more than 70 hrs, but plan on getting 70 hrs credit at minimum.

 

[Capt. JD]

Sfo, lax, jfk

What domicile do pilots get out of training?

 

[Flyer1015]

What domicile do pilots get out of training?

Everyone gets SFO. You have to bid in Flica if you want to get out of SFO. LAX has gone very junior, and a newhire today can hold it easily. JFK is super senior, on both the CA and FO sides. Someone hired now should plan on 1.5 years (maybe more) to hold JFK.

 

[blackbox]

Can u pick up trips on days off on reserve? And if so, is it paid above guarantee?

 

[Flyer1015]

Can u pick up trips on days off on reserve? And if so, is it paid above guarantee?

No, you cannot pickup trips while on reserve. The hiring is done for now, and interviews will commence again in August. You can still apply and update applications.

 

[blackbox]

No more interviews or new hire classes going on at all?

 

[pilotpm]

No more interviews or new hire classes going on at all?

The email I read said interviewing was done until august. A few more new hire classes will come before the dry spell.

 

[Flyer1015]

Class on May 7th then it should be August after that. The interviews for the May class have been done, recent intervieews have been told to expect an August class. So there will be no interviews May, June, July. Should start again in August.

 

[UM#1]

Class on May 7th then it should be August after that. The interviews for the May class have been done, recent intervieews have been told to expect an August class. So there will be no interviews May, June, July. Should start again in August.

Couple of us new guys are expecting to be in a second May class (interview guys before us are in the May 7th class) and another friend was told a June class, have you heard anything about these classes?

 

[Chairman]

Couple of us new guys are expecting to be in a second May class (interview guys before us are in the May 7th class) and another friend was told a June class, have you heard anything about these classes?

I think they are taking the company email out of context. We will run small classes through the summer from pilots in the pool. The interview pipeline is shut down till after summer.

 

[mxer]

The same thing as last summer. Interviews stopped then for a short period. We are pretty short in the left seat. As that catches up, my guess more new hire classes will have to follow.

 

[XJAVRO]

I think they are taking the company email out of context. We will run small classes through the summer from pilots in the pool. The interview pipeline is shut down till after summer.

Correct I just talked to the indoc instructor. The only month we are not running newhire classes in July.

 

[johnsonrod]

For a recent newhire, what would be the latest "projected" upgrade time? 3 years?

Any educated guesses on potential new pilot bases???? IAD? ORD? DFW?

 

[lanilila]

Any educated guesses on potential new pilot bases???? IAD? ORD? DFW?[/QUOTE]

All im hearing is LAX is supposed to grow. The few IAD trips have been stopped and I havent heard anything about those coming back. Although there are alot of people who commute from ORD and DFW so maybe if we get more flying out of those stations there could possibly be trips that start or end there but thats purely a guess or wishful thinking.

 

[Chairman]

For a recent newhire, what would be the latest "projected" upgrade time? 3 years?

Any educated guesses on potential new pilot bases???? IAD? ORD? DFW?

Project upgrade is much longer than that. Bottom pilot is 553 on the list. At 6 captains per airplane they would need 92 airplanes on property to Upgrade.

52 airplanes right now.

Deliveries

2013 5
2014 10
2015 11
2016 6
2017 8 92 total airframes
2018 12
2019 8

So bottom guy on the list today is looking at 5 1/2 years based on firm aircraft orders right now with no attrition or retirements figured in so 4-5 would be a closer bet to take the first upgrade.

Chairman