ComAir pilots based @ JFK...

[CFINY]

Hi all,

I have few q's for you guys/gals based at JFK:

- How long is reserve in JFK now days?
- How many hours (average), you guys fly a month, when on reserve/holding line?
- How "BIG" is your pay check with all the extras, 1st, 2nd year?
( again, average).

Thanks very much.

 

[jws717]

I was JFK based last year October till furlogh in December. I got used alot because the base was growing at the time and there was a F/O shortage. Right untill Delta Cut the flying, then came the Displacement bid and the Furlough. My whole expirence with Comair was endless pain. Pay will be maybe 1400-2000 a month depending on how much you get used. I know 2.5 year F/Os who are still on reserve and will never upgrade. Captains are grumpy old and mean. F/As and the jets are also the oldest in the industry. 2 hour call and they can change your 11 days off when your on reserve. (why eaven bid?) I left to another regional along with alot of other furloughs, none of us ever looked back. Avoid Comair at all cost, avoid anything Delta Connection. Look at what they are doinng again almost 12 months to the day, Comair flying up for bid again! Do yourself a favor and apply elsewhere.

 

[imacdog]

You should clarify your post to say that not all of your days off can be moved. As for your other points, there are others here who have had different experiences and views.

 

[dvmthwsvan]

Looks like to me in the September lines that someone hired about September 06 has a line. So about a year maybe in JFK. In CVG they are running about 2 years on reserve. Then again we are hiring now and stopped in Sep 06. So could be shorter. i certainly dont know of any 2.5 year FO's on reserve. unless they bid it. Well i take that back, maybe in Orlando. But thats a very senior base. We are also growing our JFK base right now. As far as how much you work. i cant say for JFK. i was on reserve here in GSO and flew about 35-50 hours a month. Flying about 9-12 days a month. When i was on reserve in CVG a couple of years ago i would credit about 100 hours a month. Before the hours were cut though in BK though. Every month you get 11-12 days off depending on if its a 30 or 31 day month. And 6 or 7 of those are fixed and cannot be moved. the rest can if they have no other option to fill the flying. Hope this helps.

Dave

 

[Caveman]

Looks like to me in the September lines that someone hired about September 06 has a line. So about a year maybe in JFK. In CVG they are running about 2 years on reserve. Then again we are hiring now and stopped in Sep 06. So could be shorter. i certainly dont know of any 2.5 year FO's on reserve. unless they bid it. Well i take that back, maybe in Orlando. But thats a very senior base. We are also growing our JFK base right now. As far as how much you work. i cant say for JFK. i was on reserve here in GSO and flew about 35-50 hours a month. Flying about 9-12 days a month. When i was on reserve in CVG a couple of years ago i would credit about 100 hours a month. Before the hours were cut though in BK though. Every month you get 11-12 days off depending on if its a 30 or 31 day month. And 6 or 7 of those are fixed and cannot be moved. the rest can if they have no other option to fill the flying. Hope this helps.

Dave

I know a little something about CMR reserve and in my experience you can pretty much count on at least a couple of your moveable days off being moved every month on very short notice. It was not rare to have them all moved during a given month.

CMR's reserve system (at least in CVG) is arguably the worst there is at the regional level. It's abusive, relentlesss, and unethically managed. Outright lying and contractual manipulation were routine. As a career reserve guy at CMR I averaged 90+ credit hours a month on reserve for over 2 1/2 years. That's not reserve. That's a lineholder without a set schedule. In all of that time I can count on one hand the number of days I was available but wasn't used. It varies by seat, domicile and a/c, but somewhere on the order of 30% of CMR pilots are on reserve at any given time. The crazy part is they designed it that way. God knows why. All they do is create work for themselves and alienate their employees.

The difference in QOL between a reserve pilot at CMR and a lineholder is huge. I know that statement could apply to almost any airline, but at CMR it really is two entirley different airlines. A lineholder has pretty good workrules and if there is a change or displacment more times than not they'll get to go home and be pay protected. A reserve guy will always be worked to the absolute legal and contractual limit (and sometimes they'll try and go beyond that). I was never domiciled in JFK or GSO, but I understand it's much less painful out of those stations even though it's still managed back in CVG.

As a comparison, I was a reserve Captain in domicile at CVG while at CMR. I lived 15 minutes from the airport. I now commute to JFK as a reserve FO with JetBlue. Even though I have to commute and I get paid about $25K less per year my QOL has improved DRAMATICALLY. Reserve is still reserve and commuting sucks, but it's still light years better than Comair's reserve ever was. I don't believe the improvement is an LCC vs regional thing. I have friends on reserve at other regionals and their QOL is not nearly as bad as reserve at CMR. YMMV.

 

[DrewBlows]

I see this has turned into a Comair reserve thread, but I'll try to answer the original questions first. Basically every question you asked is unanswerable. Everything is up in the air until the company settles it's contracts with the unions and Delta settles the DCI flying issue. If you have a choice, I suggest you choose something else. Comair would be a huge gamble.

I am pretty much an expert on the reseve system at Comair since I live and breath it. I will go on record as saying it pretty much sucks, but it is what you make of it. You will work 19 days a month and theres a good chance that you will be used all of those days. You can bid to fly to get put at the front of the call out list. I do this because I try to break gaurantee every month and I commute (I'd rather be flying than sitting in a crash pad). The problem with bidding to fly is that you will get called for whatever is available, including ready reserve. I think you can do up to six ready's a month and a lot of 50 seat guys do that. Comair has a lot of extra 50 seaters right now so they use them to reposition crews and replace broken airplanes. There are no extra 70 seaters sitting around so the 70 seat pilots don't get nearly as many ready reserves (I've done maybe five in over a year). Overall life on reserve is a lot better in the 70.

Your soft days off can be moved, and they will move them occasionally to accomidate a trip. It usually sucks when it happens but every once in a while it will work in your favor. I got this weekend off (which I wouldn't ordinarily) because they moved my days off, this is the exception to the rule.

You can call at any time to be released. This is one of the few rules that is actually pretty nice. They won't always release you, but you can look on the internet to see what the reserve situation is and call if it looks like they won't need you. I was released at 8:30 am yesterday, it basically gave me another day off.

Once again, reserve is what you make of it. If you are easy going and can handle uncertainty without going crazy it's not that bad. Of course I've never held a line, so I don't know what I'm missing.

 

[jws717]

anywhere else moving a soft day is called a jounior man, but at comair its all part of being a short notice line holder. AKA reserve biotch.

 

[D+$]

i was hired oct 04 and i have been in jfk since dec 05 holding a line with weekends off ever since i came to jfk. My pay check is 2500 per month after taxes. I dont commute and live in a tight part of brooklyn. (not the ghetto part) No complaints.

 

[wmuflyguy]

1.5 years at Comair all on reserve, only 3 days off moved in that time. CVG 50 seater reserve was tough this summer, flew 80+ hours every month (except aug for vacation). A couple of those I credited 95+.

Ready reserves are max of 6 in one month, can only do 2 in a row, and they are a max of 6 hours (but pay 4h 20 mins or if you fly more that day you get the greater of the 2.). If you are on reserve you better buy a lap-top because you will be sitting in the crew room on your butt.