For March, I was on a 60 day secondary line (lines are explained here) that started in February and went through March. I was originally supposed to work 27-31, but my baby’s due date was moved up to 3/28. I called the chief pilot as soon as I found out the date change and they moved those last 5 days on to 18-22.
I traveled to Cinnci on the 19th for a redeye and was supposed to fly 19-22, but all my flights got dropped from my schedule due to a scheduling conflict from another flight.
22 days off not including AWRD days with gateway travel.
AWRD means an originally scheduled day on has been awarded off.
Generally, every fleet will have some sort of options to bid for split lines (10 on 8 off sort of thing). We don’t have PBS like other airlines. Every month, the company sends out pre-determined lines which you bid on. There are usually options like 10 on 7 off, 12 on 7 off, sort of thing. I have seen 8 on 6 off. So, to answer your question, yes, those options are available. However, lines change every month here, so years from now who knows what we’ll have. Just know that Atlas’ main schedule they advertise is 17 on 13 off.
Keep in mind I’m not saying those split line options are in abundance. I’ve been told by various pilots who flew the other fleets that the wide body schedule is mostly 15-17 on 12-14 off.
Great question. Probably the biggest thing I see right now is stability. Passenger airlines are quite dependant on the economy. Cargo usually operates no matter what and Atlas moves a huge chunk of the global cargo. We also move a lot of military personel around the world and have contracts in place with a handful of NFL teams. We just bought two triple 7s for, and signed a contract with, MSC. I personally believe we are on a stable path.
I talk a little about gateway travel and private transportation here. No crash pads, ever.
I don’t know about other airlines, but we keep all the points for flights and the majority of points for hotels. The hotels are almost always Hilton or Marriott proprieties. Sometimes they’ll book IHG, Choice, or Hyatt properties but they are still very nice hotels regardless of which property is used. Flights are booked on the big 3 99% of the time. I can’t speak for the international side of things.
With some seniority, you can get a lot of time off with one week of vacation. I flew with a captain who got 5 weeks off with one week of vacation because of the way they were able to bid and “slide” their vacation around (I won’t get into vacation sliding). If you want a guaranteed month off, you can put two weeks of vacation into a month and automatically have the month off. The vacation policy here is probably one of the best.
There’s a lot of little things here that add up and can make QOL quite nice.
Is commuting on your days off, or is it on your work stretch (Like the 17 days on)? Also, do you know if you can get hired directly on the 74, or do you have to work the 73 first?
Commuting generally depends on where you start your pattern (days on). If you are starting in base, you’ll be commuting in on your days off. If you are starting outside of base, you usually commute on day 1 of your pattern. The same is generally true at the end of your pattern. However, on the last day of your pattern, if you finish your duty and you can catch a flight home same day, you can.
As for what fleet you get, you can start on any. I’m on the 73 because I went through the pathway program which led only to the 73 (however, now I hear pathway students are going to any fleet. Not sure how true it is). You can ask for any fleet, but definitely not guaranteed you’ll get what you want. You’ll be put where you’re needed, but they’ll try to honor what fleet you want. It just depends on what pilots are needed where.