New hire bids

[yowflyer23]

I have a few questions before starting gs.

1. What happens if a base closes? Do you get to switch equipment or are you forced to another base? Thinking about the YYC RJ base.
2. If the equipment you want is available, but the base isn't, is it still generally quick to be able to get a transfer to the base you want?
3. Is there lots of overtime availability for FO's in YYZ/YVR or other ways to take home some additional cash? The budget would definitely be tighter at those bases with mmg salary, ignoring per diems. I read that YYZ has more movement/quicker upgrades, so would that mean you could hold a line sooner and earn more per diems?

Thank you!

[cdnavater]

I have a few questions before starting gs.

1. What happens if a base closes? Do you get to switch equipment or are you forced to another base? Thinking about the YYC RJ base.
2. If the equipment you want is available, but the base isn't, is it still generally quick to be able to get a transfer to the base you want?
3. Is there lots of overtime availability for FO's in YYZ/YVR or other ways to take home some additional cash? The budget would definitely be tighter at those bases with mmg salary, ignoring per diems. I read that YYZ has more movement/quicker upgrades, so would that mean you could hold a line sooner and earn more per diems?

Thank you!

The base closure is somewhat complicated to answer because of the many variables, ie; is it just your equipment at that base or full base closure.
If your equipment is gone than seniority for status and base apply but if you can’t hold that than it’s a forced move to where you can hold a position. Forced moved has some pretty good provisions, read costly, so the company will want to be very sure before closing a base.
As for remaining on base, I believe the equipment freeze is removed, not sure about moving but I’m fairly certain if you are forced to move it’s any position your seniority can hold and you can qualify your position.

Question 2. There is a lot of movement, most seem to get the preferred base before they are finished the initial training and as long as your preferred base has the equipment you are on you will get it before any new hire in order of seniority. If your preferred base was not available, you are frozen on type for 24 months otherwise it’s 48 months, no freeze to upgrade.

As for 3. I have no idea about the amount of OT but that changes month to month. I believe currently there are a lot of FOs on reserve becwe are short of Captains, they can only build pairing enough to balance the roster, the rest go on reserve.

[ghost-account]

I'm currently going through the recruitment process and noticed a few of the last new hire bids on here included a decent amount of YVR RJ. Assuming I make it through and am blessed enough to have my name pulled early enough to choose between a YVR RJ and YYC DH8 position (again assuming these are even available), which would give me the least terrible QoL starting off? Is there even a difference? Any guidance would be very much appreciated, looking at potentially my first 705 job and it's a little daunting.

[yowflyer23]

I have a few questions before starting gs.

1. What happens if a base closes? Do you get to switch equipment or are you forced to another base? Thinking about the YYC RJ base.
2. If the equipment you want is available, but the base isn't, is it still generally quick to be able to get a transfer to the base you want?
3. Is there lots of overtime availability for FO's in YYZ/YVR or other ways to take home some additional cash? The budget would definitely be tighter at those bases with mmg salary, ignoring per diems. I read that YYZ has more movement/quicker upgrades, so would that mean you could hold a line sooner and earn more per diems?

Thank you!

The base closure is somewhat complicated to answer because of the many variables, ie; is it just your equipment at that base or full base closure.
If your equipment is gone than seniority for status and base apply but if you can’t hold that than it’s a forced move to where you can hold a position. Forced moved has some pretty good provisions, read costly, so the company will want to be very sure before closing a base.
As for remaining on base, I believe the equipment freeze is removed, not sure about moving but I’m fairly certain if you are forced to move it’s any position your seniority can hold and you can qualify your position.

Question 2. There is a lot of movement, most seem to get the preferred base before they are finished the initial training and as long as your preferred base has the equipment you are on you will get it before any new hire in order of seniority. If your preferred base was not available, you are frozen on type for 24 months otherwise it’s 48 months, no freeze to upgrade.

As for 3. I have no idea about the amount of OT but that changes month to month. I believe currently there are a lot of FOs on reserve becwe are short of Captains, they can only build pairing enough to balance the roster, the rest go on reserve.

Thanks for the detailed reply. Much appreciated!

[Mobius_09]

I'm currently going through the recruitment process and noticed a few of the last new hire bids on here included a decent amount of YVR RJ. Assuming I make it through and am blessed enough to have my name pulled early enough to choose between a YVR RJ and YYC DH8 position (again assuming these are even available), which would give me the least terrible QoL starting off? Is there even a difference? Any guidance would be very much appreciated, looking at potentially my first 705 job and it's a little daunting.

Which airport is your domicile? You’ll get the best QoL by cutting down as much as possible or eliminating your need to commute to work

[ghost-account]

I'm currently going through the recruitment process and noticed a few of the last new hire bids on here included a decent amount of YVR RJ. Assuming I make it through and am blessed enough to have my name pulled early enough to choose between a YVR RJ and YYC DH8 position (again assuming these are even available), which would give me the least terrible QoL starting off? Is there even a difference? Any guidance would be very much appreciated, looking at potentially my first 705 job and it's a little daunting.

Which airport is your domicile? You’ll get the best QoL by cutting down as much as possible or eliminating your need to commute to work

I'm currently in the YWG area. I think either way I would be hoping to move to YYC and either fly out of there or commute if I got on in YVR. I know YYC is where I want to live, I'm just concerned about the unique shortcomings of being placed on either equipment. I have to be honest there's quite a strong draw to flying something without a prop, but I'm sincerely happy to fly either one. I know anything junior is going to suck at first, but I ideally I can choose something (assuming a choice will even exist) that gives me the best chance at enjoying my time with Jazz.

[QKZXKV]

I'm currently going through the recruitment process and noticed a few of the last new hire bids on here included a decent amount of YVR RJ. Assuming I make it through and am blessed enough to have my name pulled early enough to choose between a YVR RJ and YYC DH8 position (again assuming these are even available), which would give me the least terrible QoL starting off? Is there even a difference? Any guidance would be very much appreciated, looking at potentially my first 705 job and it's a little daunting.

Which airport is your domicile? You’ll get the best QoL by cutting down as much as possible or eliminating your need to commute to work

I'm currently in the YWG area. I think either way I would be hoping to move to YYC and either fly out of there or commute if I got on in YVR. I know YYC is where I want to live, I'm just concerned about the unique shortcomings of being placed on either equipment. I have to be honest there's quite a strong draw to flying something without a prop, but I'm sincerely happy to fly either one. I know anything junior is going to suck at first, but I ideally I can choose something (assuming a choice will even exist) that gives me the best chance at enjoying my time with Jazz.

Not trying to scare you, but living where you do, you're going to hate commuting to an expensive city like YVR to sit on Reserve for 18 days a month. YWG-YYC is a very infrequent route.

[ghost-account]

Which airport is your domicile? You’ll get the best QoL by cutting down as much as possible or eliminating your need to commute to work

I'm currently in the YWG area. I think either way I would be hoping to move to YYC and either fly out of there or commute if I got on in YVR. I know YYC is where I want to live, I'm just concerned about the unique shortcomings of being placed on either equipment. I have to be honest there's quite a strong draw to flying something without a prop, but I'm sincerely happy to fly either one. I know anything junior is going to suck at first, but I ideally I can choose something (assuming a choice will even exist) that gives me the best chance at enjoying my time with Jazz.

Not trying to scare you, but living where you do, you're going to hate commuting to an expensive city like YVR to sit on Reserve for 18 days a month. YWG-YYC is a very infrequent route.

I'm happy, and very open, to moving to YYC. Assuming I lived in YYC do you think the commute to YVR would be as bad? And if I lived in YYC, would I just be better off picking up whatever equipment is available there?

[QKZXKV]

I'm currently in the YWG area. I think either way I would be hoping to move to YYC and either fly out of there or commute if I got on in YVR. I know YYC is where I want to live, I'm just concerned about the unique shortcomings of being placed on either equipment. I have to be honest there's quite a strong draw to flying something without a prop, but I'm sincerely happy to fly either one. I know anything junior is going to suck at first, but I ideally I can choose something (assuming a choice will even exist) that gives me the best chance at enjoying my time with Jazz.

Not trying to scare you, but living where you do, you're going to hate commuting to an expensive city like YVR to sit on Reserve for 18 days a month. YWG-YYC is a very infrequent route.

I'm happy, and very open, to moving to YYC. Assuming I lived in YYC do you think the commute to YVR would be as bad? And if I lived in YYC, would I just be better off picking up whatever equipment is available there?

The problem with YYC-YVR (having been forced to do it for yrs) is that the loads are about the worst you can find for commuting to and from a base. ATC flow delays make it very unpredictable to get to work on time. The problem with commuting as a new hire is the reserve thing. You basically have to pay to live in 2 places a month (either a crashpad within 2 hrs from your airport or a hotel).

As for type, I always tell people I never bid type unless I can hold it in the base I want. I know a lot of people hold their noses at the Q (myself included). I'd always pick it if it meant living in my base.

3rd thing, if you're interested in YYC, I don't recommend Jazz as a place to be. If they ever decide to axe the CRJ base, every CRJ pilot will be entitled to be unfrozen and move to the Q400 so they aren't displaced from their base. You'd be bottom of the list and have very little luck of hold in YYC after the reductions would be accommodated.

If Jazz is really your place, you'd maybe be better off commuting YWG-YYZ. Either way, you still have to sit reserve as a commuter and that is absolutely the worst with no set date on when you could hold a block.

[ghost-account]

Not trying to scare you, but living where you do, you're going to hate commuting to an expensive city like YVR to sit on Reserve for 18 days a month. YWG-YYC is a very infrequent route.

I'm happy, and very open, to moving to YYC. Assuming I lived in YYC do you think the commute to YVR would be as bad? And if I lived in YYC, would I just be better off picking up whatever equipment is available there?

The problem with YYC-YVR (having been forced to do it for yrs) is that the loads are about the worst you can find for commuting to and from a base. ATC flow delays make it very unpredictable to get to work on time. The problem with commuting as a new hire is the reserve thing. You basically have to pay to live in 2 places a month (either a crashpad within 2 hrs from your airport or a hotel).

As for type, I always tell people I never bid type unless I can hold it in the base I want. I know a lot of people hold their noses at the Q (myself included). I'd always pick it if it meant living in my base.

3rd thing, if you're interested in YYC, I don't recommend Jazz as a place to be. If they ever decide to axe the CRJ base, every CRJ pilot will be entitled to be unfrozen and move to the Q400 so they aren't displaced from their base. You'd be bottom of the list and have very little luck of hold in YYC after the reductions would be accommodated.

If Jazz is really your place, you'd maybe be better off commuting YWG-YYZ. Either way, you still have to sit reserve as a commuter and that is absolutely the worst with no set date on when you could hold a block.

Between what you and Mobius have said seems like ideal base is the number one consideration. So I may just go for whatever is in YYC. Why do people “hold their noses” at the Q? I’ll be coming off small pistons, I can’t imagine anything will be a downgrade from that.

The added wrinkle is that I may have an option at something local in YWG on turbo prop multis that I need to consider. I’m just worried with all the talk of a hiring slow down coming that if I take the local thing that I’ll still end up at Jazz in the future just losing 2 years of potential seniority.

[Nick678]

I'm currently in the YWG area. I think either way I would be hoping to move to YYC and either fly out of there or commute if I got on in YVR. I know YYC is where I want to live, I'm just concerned about the unique shortcomings of being placed on either equipment. I have to be honest there's quite a strong draw to flying something without a prop, but I'm sincerely happy to fly either one. I know anything junior is going to suck at first, but I ideally I can choose something (assuming a choice will even exist) that gives me the best chance at enjoying my time with Jazz.

Not trying to scare you, but living where you do, you're going to hate commuting to an expensive city like YVR to sit on Reserve for 18 days a month. YWG-YYC is a very infrequent route.

I'm happy, and very open, to moving to YYC. Assuming I lived in YYC do you think the commute to YVR would be as bad? And if I lived in YYC, would I just be better off picking up whatever equipment is available there?

I know people shit on encore but I would recommend it for people who want to live in Calgary. Jazz doesn’t have much flying there anymore and the RJ base there is the most senior and smallest

[Roundel Randy]

Between what you and Mobius have said seems like ideal base is the number one consideration. So I may just go for whatever is in YYC. Why do people “hold their noses” at the Q? I’ll be coming off small pistons, I can’t imagine anything will be a downgrade from that.

The added wrinkle is that I may have an option at something local in YWG on turbo prop multis that I need to consider. I’m just worried with all the talk of a hiring slow down coming that if I take the local thing that I’ll still end up at Jazz in the future just losing 2 years of potential seniority.

Where are you hoping to end up in the end? WestJet mainline? Air Canada? Morningstar? Just because it may slow down doesn't mean there won't be any hiring. If you end up with Jazz trying to go Air Canada or Encore trying to go WestJet, you may be stuck there for years and not accruing any seniority with the mainline. YWG has both Perimeter and Calm Air as options. Perimeter and Calm Air also have more northern bases. Not sure if they offer commuting or not, but something worth considering. Plus there are other operators out of St Andrews and YWG, particularly for seasonal and medevac. There are quite a few options at YWG to build hours. If you are looking to move to YYC anyways, Central Mountain Air and Pacific Coastal are a couple of options that won't get you throttled trying to go mainline. You could also try to get flying up north for a year or two. You'll still be flying pretty good aircraft with Encore and Jazz and Encore should be hiring a lot this year. The only downside, as I said, is that it could slow you down trying to get to WestJet if that is your end goal. How many hours do you have right now?

[ghost-account]

Between what you and Mobius have said seems like ideal base is the number one consideration. So I may just go for whatever is in YYC. Why do people “hold their noses” at the Q? I’ll be coming off small pistons, I can’t imagine anything will be a downgrade from that.

The added wrinkle is that I may have an option at something local in YWG on turbo prop multis that I need to consider. I’m just worried with all the talk of a hiring slow down coming that if I take the local thing that I’ll still end up at Jazz in the future just losing 2 years of potential seniority.

Where are you hoping to end up in the end? WestJet mainline? Air Canada? Morningstar? Just because it may slow down doesn't mean there won't be any hiring. If you end up with Jazz trying to go Air Canada or Encore trying to go WestJet, you may be stuck there for years and not accruing any seniority with the mainline. YWG has both Perimeter and Calm Air as options. Perimeter and Calm Air also have more northern bases. Not sure if they offer commuting or not, but something worth considering. Plus there are other operators out of St Andrews and YWG, particularly for seasonal and medevac. There are quite a few options at YWG to build hours. If you are looking to move to YYC anyways, Central Mountain Air and Pacific Coastal are a couple of options that won't get you throttled trying to go mainline. You could also try to get flying up north for a year or two. You'll still be flying pretty good aircraft with Encore and Jazz and Encore should be hiring a lot this year. The only downside, as I said, is that it could slow you down trying to get to WestJet if that is your end goal. How many hours do you have right now?

A little short of what Encore requires, so super green.

I don't have a particular company that I want to fly for, I think I like the idea of long haul flying, but realistically I don't know enough about life at a big 705 to have any idea of what that actually means. There isn't really a set in stone end goal. If Jazz ends up holding me back from Big Red, then I'm sure I can have a nice career with WestJet, flying cargo also sounds pretty great. I guess I just want to end up somewhere where I feel like I'm putting myself in the best position for the next step, whatever that ends up being. Maybe I'm naive to think that's Jazz.

Don't want to hijack this thread too much. I really appreciate the responses I've gotten so far. It's given me a lot to think about. If anyone else wants to throw their .02c out there, I would love to hear it.

I know people shit on encore but I would recommend it for people who want to live in Calgary. Jazz doesn’t have much flying there anymore and the RJ base there is the most senior and smallest

Do you know how the Dash flying is out there?

[rudder]

In mid-January there (probably) will be an equipment bid. It will look out 12 months but really will be reflective of the peak monthly flying months of June/July/August.

It will also describe the Base/Equipment plan going forward. Current planned fleet is 98 airframes but most fleet types are understaffed and therefore under-utilized.

If past is prologue, look for a smaller planned operation but little or no changes to equipment basing. Jazz seems reluctant to take that step. Or perhaps AC will make that decision for them.

My prediction is less than 1000 projected positions. Basically a mirror image of where Jazz is actually staffed today. Over 1000 positions for the summer would only be sustainable if AC flow were turned off from February until September (a repeat of the 2023 strategy) and Jazz hiring rate increased well obove its pace for 2023.

The goal for 2024 will likely be to try to keep pace with attrition and to staff for a smaller fleet. If AC attrition is 250 then gross attrition will probably fall in the range of 350+. Required hiring would be 20+ new-hires every third Monday. Jazz did not keep up that pace in 2023 but there were disruptions to training resources and training dept staffing. Hopefully 2024 will be more stable in that regard.

Biggest constraints to ability to cover planned block hours will likely be the applicant pool, accepted job proffers, non-flow attrition, and upgradability.

[cdnavater]

I'm currently going through the recruitment process and noticed a few of the last new hire bids on here included a decent amount of YVR RJ. Assuming I make it through and am blessed enough to have my name pulled early enough to choose between a YVR RJ and YYC DH8 position (again assuming these are even available), which would give me the least terrible QoL starting off? Is there even a difference? Any guidance would be very much appreciated, looking at potentially my first 705 job and it's a little daunting.

Which airport is your domicile? You’ll get the best QoL by cutting down as much as possible or eliminating your need to commute to work

I'm currently in the YWG area. I think either way I would be hoping to move to YYC and either fly out of there or commute if I got on in YVR. I know YYC is where I want to live, I'm just concerned about the unique shortcomings of being placed on either equipment. I have to be honest there's quite a strong draw to flying something without a prop, but I'm sincerely happy to fly either one. I know anything junior is going to suck at first, but I ideally I can choose something (assuming a choice will even exist) that gives me the best chance at enjoying my time with Jazz.

In all honesty not a single one of the posters including myself can predict anything related to aviation, a common expression that I first heard 30 years ago is, aviation is based on the plan of the hour superseded by the plan of the minute superseded by the plan of the millisecond.
Many variables will affect how and where you end up and everything is based on an educated guess, which of course is based on experience and what’s going on now in aviation has not been experienced before, so that’s a long way to say, nobody really knows.
You could get on with Jazz and the Calgary base could grow next year or it could be closed, I doubt even the management suite knows the answer to this right now. There is a common thought that the only thing that makes sense is for AC to buy Jazz back from Chorus and what that means is anyone’s guess. The current CPA in effect has AC paying for aircraft that are parked and there is an unfair labour practice claim that is filed due to ACs ability to not only interfere with our bargaining but actually dictate the outcome.
Encore, common knowledge, going there means you are behind every single Encore pilot who have a seniority number for WJ and all hired after (date?) do not have any flow rights at all. It would be YEARS to go Encore to WJ.
The reality is, if WJ is your goal which it should be if YYC is where you want to live, Jazz will get you there faster than Encore and vice versa, Encore could be faster to AC. However as things start to slow down at AC, at Jazz you would be part of the 30% flow.
As for your turboprop job in YWG, not all are created equally and given I’m quite familiar with all of them, I would not hesitate to say, Jazz hands down versus any of them, including CALM Air. At Jazz with your 800 hours you would likely be left seat in about 2 years making 120k, providing you can get your ATPL.
Good luck with your decision and of course it goes without saying, you take an actual offer, based on what you said you don’t actually have any offers at this point.
Last point, not sure why you are set on YYC as domicile but you are really constricting yourself to WJ or commuting so if you don’t have to live in Calgary I would consider other places to live.

[ghost-account]

Which airport is your domicile? You’ll get the best QoL by cutting down as much as possible or eliminating your need to commute to work

I'm currently in the YWG area. I think either way I would be hoping to move to YYC and either fly out of there or commute if I got on in YVR. I know YYC is where I want to live, I'm just concerned about the unique shortcomings of being placed on either equipment. I have to be honest there's quite a strong draw to flying something without a prop, but I'm sincerely happy to fly either one. I know anything junior is going to suck at first, but I ideally I can choose something (assuming a choice will even exist) that gives me the best chance at enjoying my time with Jazz.

In all honesty not a single one of the posters including myself can predict anything related to aviation, a common expression that I first heard 30 years ago is, aviation is based on the plan of the hour superseded by the plan of the minute superseded by the plan of the millisecond.
Many variables will affect how and where you end up and everything is based on an educated guess, which of course is based on experience and what’s going on now in aviation has not been experienced before, so that’s a long way to say, nobody really knows.
You could get on with Jazz and the Calgary base could grow next year or it could be closed, I doubt even the management suite knows the answer to this right now. There is a common thought that the only thing that makes sense is for AC to buy Jazz back from Chorus and what that means is anyone’s guess. The current CPA in effect has AC paying for aircraft that are parked and there is an unfair labour practice claim that is filed due to ACs ability to not only interfere with our bargaining but actually dictate the outcome.
Encore, common knowledge, going there means you are behind every single Encore pilot who have a seniority number for WJ and all hired after (date?) do not have any flow rights at all. It would be YEARS to go Encore to WJ.
The reality is, if WJ is your goal which it should be if YYC is where you want to live, Jazz will get you there faster than Encore and vice versa, Encore could be faster to AC. However as things start to slow down at AC, at Jazz you would be part of the 30% flow.
As for your turboprop job in YWG, not all are created equally and given I’m quite familiar with all of them, I would not hesitate to say, Jazz hands down versus any of them, including CALM Air. At Jazz with your 800 hours you would likely be left seat in about 2 years making 120k, providing you can get your ATPL.
Good luck with your decision and of course it goes without saying, you take an actual offer, based on what you said you don’t actually have any offers at this point.
Last point, not sure why you are set on YYC as domicile but you are really constricting yourself to WJ or commuting so if you don’t have to live in Calgary I would consider other places to live.

Thank you very much for such a detailed response. Maybe I'm falling for confirmation bias, but I'm also heavily leaning towards Jazz, but you're correct I don't have an offer yet. It just seems to make sense and a lot of your points have resonated with why I'm leaning that way. I've interviewed locally but that doesn't really mean a thing and all of this confliction only goes if two offers come fairly close together.

YYC seems like the only place I could reasonably afford to live, although that seems to be changing quite quickly. Many have said the CRJ flying in YYC is practically non-existent, any word on how the Dash flying/base is there?

[Nick678]

I'm currently in the YWG area. I think either way I would be hoping to move to YYC and either fly out of there or commute if I got on in YVR. I know YYC is where I want to live, I'm just concerned about the unique shortcomings of being placed on either equipment. I have to be honest there's quite a strong draw to flying something without a prop, but I'm sincerely happy to fly either one. I know anything junior is going to suck at first, but I ideally I can choose something (assuming a choice will even exist) that gives me the best chance at enjoying my time with Jazz.

In all honesty not a single one of the posters including myself can predict anything related to aviation, a common expression that I first heard 30 years ago is, aviation is based on the plan of the hour superseded by the plan of the minute superseded by the plan of the millisecond.
Many variables will affect how and where you end up and everything is based on an educated guess, which of course is based on experience and what’s going on now in aviation has not been experienced before, so that’s a long way to say, nobody really knows.
You could get on with Jazz and the Calgary base could grow next year or it could be closed, I doubt even the management suite knows the answer to this right now. There is a common thought that the only thing that makes sense is for AC to buy Jazz back from Chorus and what that means is anyone’s guess. The current CPA in effect has AC paying for aircraft that are parked and there is an unfair labour practice claim that is filed due to ACs ability to not only interfere with our bargaining but actually dictate the outcome.
Encore, common knowledge, going there means you are behind every single Encore pilot who have a seniority number for WJ and all hired after (date?) do not have any flow rights at all. It would be YEARS to go Encore to WJ.
The reality is, if WJ is your goal which it should be if YYC is where you want to live, Jazz will get you there faster than Encore and vice versa, Encore could be faster to AC. However as things start to slow down at AC, at Jazz you would be part of the 30% flow.
As for your turboprop job in YWG, not all are created equally and given I’m quite familiar with all of them, I would not hesitate to say, Jazz hands down versus any of them, including CALM Air. At Jazz with your 800 hours you would likely be left seat in about 2 years making 120k, providing you can get your ATPL.
Good luck with your decision and of course it goes without saying, you take an actual offer, based on what you said you don’t actually have any offers at this point.
Last point, not sure why you are set on YYC as domicile but you are really constricting yourself to WJ or commuting so if you don’t have to live in Calgary I would consider other places to live.

Thank you very much for such a detailed response. Maybe I'm falling for confirmation bias, but I'm also heavily leaning towards Jazz, but you're correct I don't have an offer yet. It just seems to make sense and a lot of your points have resonated with why I'm leaning that way. I've interviewed locally but that doesn't really mean a thing and all of this confliction only goes if two offers come fairly close together.

YYC seems like the only place I could reasonably afford to live, although that seems to be changing quite quickly. Many have said the CRJ flying in YYC is practically non-existent, any word on how the Dash flying/base is there?

Basically no CRJ and the dash only has 4-5 destinations, YEG,YMM,YQU, YLW sometimes YXT. Most just one a day. So the base supports the other bases. There was plenty of flying before the pandemic but it’s all gone. There is no sign of return and recently cancelled mainline flights push that return even farther.

This translates to mostly 3-4 day pairings and lots of hotels. Seriously consider encore then AC if you think you may want long haul down the road. Jazz will close the door to AC.

[cdnavater]

I'm currently in the YWG area. I think either way I would be hoping to move to YYC and either fly out of there or commute if I got on in YVR. I know YYC is where I want to live, I'm just concerned about the unique shortcomings of being placed on either equipment. I have to be honest there's quite a strong draw to flying something without a prop, but I'm sincerely happy to fly either one. I know anything junior is going to suck at first, but I ideally I can choose something (assuming a choice will even exist) that gives me the best chance at enjoying my time with Jazz.

In all honesty not a single one of the posters including myself can predict anything related to aviation, a common expression that I first heard 30 years ago is, aviation is based on the plan of the hour superseded by the plan of the minute superseded by the plan of the millisecond.
Many variables will affect how and where you end up and everything is based on an educated guess, which of course is based on experience and what’s going on now in aviation has not been experienced before, so that’s a long way to say, nobody really knows.
You could get on with Jazz and the Calgary base could grow next year or it could be closed, I doubt even the management suite knows the answer to this right now. There is a common thought that the only thing that makes sense is for AC to buy Jazz back from Chorus and what that means is anyone’s guess. The current CPA in effect has AC paying for aircraft that are parked and there is an unfair labour practice claim that is filed due to ACs ability to not only interfere with our bargaining but actually dictate the outcome.
Encore, common knowledge, going there means you are behind every single Encore pilot who have a seniority number for WJ and all hired after (date?) do not have any flow rights at all. It would be YEARS to go Encore to WJ.
The reality is, if WJ is your goal which it should be if YYC is where you want to live, Jazz will get you there faster than Encore and vice versa, Encore could be faster to AC. However as things start to slow down at AC, at Jazz you would be part of the 30% flow.
As for your turboprop job in YWG, not all are created equally and given I’m quite familiar with all of them, I would not hesitate to say, Jazz hands down versus any of them, including CALM Air. At Jazz with your 800 hours you would likely be left seat in about 2 years making 120k, providing you can get your ATPL.
Good luck with your decision and of course it goes without saying, you take an actual offer, based on what you said you don’t actually have any offers at this point.
Last point, not sure why you are set on YYC as domicile but you are really constricting yourself to WJ or commuting so if you don’t have to live in Calgary I would consider other places to live.

Thank you very much for such a detailed response. Maybe I'm falling for confirmation bias, but I'm also heavily leaning towards Jazz, but you're correct I don't have an offer yet. It just seems to make sense and a lot of your points have resonated with why I'm leaning that way. I've interviewed locally but that doesn't really mean a thing and all of this confliction only goes if two offers come fairly close together.

YYC seems like the only place I could reasonably afford to live, although that seems to be changing quite quickly. Many have said the CRJ flying in YYC is practically non-existent, any word on how the Dash flying/base is there?

I just had a look through the January bidpac which is the pairings for schedule building, it’s pretty bleak on both. The RJ has a DH on both ends of every single pairing except for what looks like a charter to Texas three times, the Q has what looks like the classic Dash used to mostly do, not a lot of DHs but the senior pilots were all working 17-18 days, which is ridiculous. I saw some higher credit pairings in the bidpac, which should have been able to at least bring it down to 16, it would take a while to figure out why exactly. That being said this typically changes month to month and January is a typical slow month.
As for the RJ, I do think the writing is on the wall for it, a January equipment bid will tell the bigger picture but I’d be surprised if this continues another 6 months never mind another year. If I were to place a bet, it would be a closure of the RJ YYC base.
As for the where the RJ pilots will end up, there are so many variables to predict, I know of several who will choose to commute to stay on the RJ, I know a couple who personally said they would retire instead of switching or commuting.
I remember a time years and years ago that they reduced my equipment and I decided to stay on it, when the dust settled I actually moved up 8 spots, so I essentially kept my relative seniority for the most part, this really surprised me, I thought for sure if I didn’t lose my position, I would be at the bottom of the list. So, my decision to ride it out until the next bid worked out for me, I almost bid to another type.
Like I said or meant to say, if Calgary is where you want to be I would go with Jazz and with the recent pay bump in addition to our mature contract, you could be worse off elsewhere.
Good luck with your decision, it’s good you are asking these questions, better now than with an offer looming over your head.

[ghost-account]

In all honesty not a single one of the posters including myself can predict anything related to aviation, a common expression that I first heard 30 years ago is, aviation is based on the plan of the hour superseded by the plan of the minute superseded by the plan of the millisecond.
Many variables will affect how and where you end up and everything is based on an educated guess, which of course is based on experience and what’s going on now in aviation has not been experienced before, so that’s a long way to say, nobody really knows.
You could get on with Jazz and the Calgary base could grow next year or it could be closed, I doubt even the management suite knows the answer to this right now. There is a common thought that the only thing that makes sense is for AC to buy Jazz back from Chorus and what that means is anyone’s guess. The current CPA in effect has AC paying for aircraft that are parked and there is an unfair labour practice claim that is filed due to ACs ability to not only interfere with our bargaining but actually dictate the outcome.
Encore, common knowledge, going there means you are behind every single Encore pilot who have a seniority number for WJ and all hired after (date?) do not have any flow rights at all. It would be YEARS to go Encore to WJ.
The reality is, if WJ is your goal which it should be if YYC is where you want to live, Jazz will get you there faster than Encore and vice versa, Encore could be faster to AC. However as things start to slow down at AC, at Jazz you would be part of the 30% flow.
As for your turboprop job in YWG, not all are created equally and given I’m quite familiar with all of them, I would not hesitate to say, Jazz hands down versus any of them, including CALM Air. At Jazz with your 800 hours you would likely be left seat in about 2 years making 120k, providing you can get your ATPL.
Good luck with your decision and of course it goes without saying, you take an actual offer, based on what you said you don’t actually have any offers at this point.
Last point, not sure why you are set on YYC as domicile but you are really constricting yourself to WJ or commuting so if you don’t have to live in Calgary I would consider other places to live.

Thank you very much for such a detailed response. Maybe I'm falling for confirmation bias, but I'm also heavily leaning towards Jazz, but you're correct I don't have an offer yet. It just seems to make sense and a lot of your points have resonated with why I'm leaning that way. I've interviewed locally but that doesn't really mean a thing and all of this confliction only goes if two offers come fairly close together.

YYC seems like the only place I could reasonably afford to live, although that seems to be changing quite quickly. Many have said the CRJ flying in YYC is practically non-existent, any word on how the Dash flying/base is there?

I just had a look through the January bidpac which is the pairings for schedule building, it’s pretty bleak on both. The RJ has a DH on both ends of every single pairing except for what looks like a charter to Texas three times, the Q has what looks like the classic Dash used to mostly do, not a lot of DHs but the senior pilots were all working 17-18 days, which is ridiculous. I saw some higher credit pairings in the bidpac, which should have been able to at least bring it down to 16, it would take a while to figure out why exactly. That being said this typically changes month to month and January is a typical slow month.
As for the RJ, I do think the writing is on the wall for it, a January equipment bid will tell the bigger picture but I’d be surprised if this continues another 6 months never mind another year. If I were to place a bet, it would be a closure of the RJ YYC base.
As for the where the RJ pilots will end up, there are so many variables to predict, I know of several who will choose to commute to stay on the RJ, I know a couple who personally said they would retire instead of switching or commuting.
I remember a time years and years ago that they reduced my equipment and I decided to stay on it, when the dust settled I actually moved up 8 spots, so I essentially kept my relative seniority for the most part, this really surprised me, I thought for sure if I didn’t lose my position, I would be at the bottom of the list. So, my decision to ride it out until the next bid worked out for me, I almost bid to another type.
Like I said or meant to say, if Calgary is where you want to be I would go with Jazz and with the recent pay bump in addition to our mature contract, you could be worse off elsewhere.
Good luck with your decision, it’s good you are asking these questions, better now than with an offer looming over your head.

That does sound pretty bleak... How is YUL's flying and equipment these days; I've got to imagine much better than out west? Wondering how far you have to be from the airport for reserve. Again, can't thank you and the other posters enough for the guidance.

[Hysteria]

In all honesty not a single one of the posters including myself can predict anything related to aviation, a common expression that I first heard 30 years ago is, aviation is based on the plan of the hour superseded by the plan of the minute superseded by the plan of the millisecond.
Many variables will affect how and where you end up and everything is based on an educated guess, which of course is based on experience and what’s going on now in aviation has not been experienced before, so that’s a long way to say, nobody really knows.
You could get on with Jazz and the Calgary base could grow next year or it could be closed, I doubt even the management suite knows the answer to this right now. There is a common thought that the only thing that makes sense is for AC to buy Jazz back from Chorus and what that means is anyone’s guess. The current CPA in effect has AC paying for aircraft that are parked and there is an unfair labour practice claim that is filed due to ACs ability to not only interfere with our bargaining but actually dictate the outcome.
Encore, common knowledge, going there means you are behind every single Encore pilot who have a seniority number for WJ and all hired after (date?) do not have any flow rights at all. It would be YEARS to go Encore to WJ.
The reality is, if WJ is your goal which it should be if YYC is where you want to live, Jazz will get you there faster than Encore and vice versa, Encore could be faster to AC. However as things start to slow down at AC, at Jazz you would be part of the 30% flow.
As for your turboprop job in YWG, not all are created equally and given I’m quite familiar with all of them, I would not hesitate to say, Jazz hands down versus any of them, including CALM Air. At Jazz with your 800 hours you would likely be left seat in about 2 years making 120k, providing you can get your ATPL.
Good luck with your decision and of course it goes without saying, you take an actual offer, based on what you said you don’t actually have any offers at this point.
Last point, not sure why you are set on YYC as domicile but you are really constricting yourself to WJ or commuting so if you don’t have to live in Calgary I would consider other places to live.

Thank you very much for such a detailed response. Maybe I'm falling for confirmation bias, but I'm also heavily leaning towards Jazz, but you're correct I don't have an offer yet. It just seems to make sense and a lot of your points have resonated with why I'm leaning that way. I've interviewed locally but that doesn't really mean a thing and all of this confliction only goes if two offers come fairly close together.

YYC seems like the only place I could reasonably afford to live, although that seems to be changing quite quickly. Many have said the CRJ flying in YYC is practically non-existent, any word on how the Dash flying/base is there?

I just had a look through the January bidpac which is the pairings for schedule building, it’s pretty bleak on both. The RJ has a DH on both ends of every single pairing except for what looks like a charter to Texas three times, the Q has what looks like the classic Dash used to mostly do, not a lot of DHs but the senior pilots were all working 17-18 days, which is ridiculous. I saw some higher credit pairings in the bidpac, which should have been able to at least bring it down to 16, it would take a while to figure out why exactly. That being said this typically changes month to month and January is a typical slow month.
As for the RJ, I do think the writing is on the wall for it, a January equipment bid will tell the bigger picture but I’d be surprised if this continues another 6 months never mind another year. If I were to place a bet, it would be a closure of the RJ YYC base.
As for the where the RJ pilots will end up, there are so many variables to predict, I know of several who will choose to commute to stay on the RJ, I know a couple who personally said they would retire instead of switching or commuting.
I remember a time years and years ago that they reduced my equipment and I decided to stay on it, when the dust settled I actually moved up 8 spots, so I essentially kept my relative seniority for the most part, this really surprised me, I thought for sure if I didn’t lose my position, I would be at the bottom of the list. So, my decision to ride it out until the next bid worked out for me, I almost bid to another type.
Like I said or meant to say, if Calgary is where you want to be I would go with Jazz and with the recent pay bump in addition to our mature contract, you could be worse off elsewhere.
Good luck with your decision, it’s good you are asking these questions, better now than with an offer looming over your head.

Did you happen to see the CRJ YVR bidpac?

[AntiShill]

YEG-SFO ----> Do you HAVE to deadhead from YYC? What if you're already visiting Edmonton? Do you still have to report to YYC first?

[cdnavater]

YEG-SFO ----> Do you HAVE to deadhead from YYC? What if you're already visiting Edmonton? Do you still have to report to YYC first?

Typically, you would call Crewsked the day before and ask for the “next day desk”, they can release you from your DH. Occasionally if a weather event is expected they might ask you to call back later or early enough that you can still get to YYC but the reality is, with no RJ flying originating in YYC, they can’t really reassign you so it’s almost a guarantee they will release you from the DH.

As for the other posters asking about bidpacs, the best measure is the monthly schedule and it looks like for January, YVR RJ has the most higher credit pairings, the top block holders are still working 16 days, I noticed YUL EMJ top block holders are working 17-18, so all low credit flying.
The thing to keep in mind, the flying in January is typically not very productive and our schedules have not been overly productive for a while now, these things change and I would not pick equipment or base based on a snapshot in time. You’re best to go with equipment at the base you want to live at or commute to, but realize it will undoubtedly change at some point, either for the better or worse but it will change.

[Nick678]

Thank you very much for such a detailed response. Maybe I'm falling for confirmation bias, but I'm also heavily leaning towards Jazz, but you're correct I don't have an offer yet. It just seems to make sense and a lot of your points have resonated with why I'm leaning that way. I've interviewed locally but that doesn't really mean a thing and all of this confliction only goes if two offers come fairly close together.

YYC seems like the only place I could reasonably afford to live, although that seems to be changing quite quickly. Many have said the CRJ flying in YYC is practically non-existent, any word on how the Dash flying/base is there?

I just had a look through the January bidpac which is the pairings for schedule building, it’s pretty bleak on both. The RJ has a DH on both ends of every single pairing except for what looks like a charter to Texas three times, the Q has what looks like the classic Dash used to mostly do, not a lot of DHs but the senior pilots were all working 17-18 days, which is ridiculous. I saw some higher credit pairings in the bidpac, which should have been able to at least bring it down to 16, it would take a while to figure out why exactly. That being said this typically changes month to month and January is a typical slow month.
As for the RJ, I do think the writing is on the wall for it, a January equipment bid will tell the bigger picture but I’d be surprised if this continues another 6 months never mind another year. If I were to place a bet, it would be a closure of the RJ YYC base.
As for the where the RJ pilots will end up, there are so many variables to predict, I know of several who will choose to commute to stay on the RJ, I know a couple who personally said they would retire instead of switching or commuting.
I remember a time years and years ago that they reduced my equipment and I decided to stay on it, when the dust settled I actually moved up 8 spots, so I essentially kept my relative seniority for the most part, this really surprised me, I thought for sure if I didn’t lose my position, I would be at the bottom of the list. So, my decision to ride it out until the next bid worked out for me, I almost bid to another type.
Like I said or meant to say, if Calgary is where you want to be I would go with Jazz and with the recent pay bump in addition to our mature contract, you could be worse off elsewhere.
Good luck with your decision, it’s good you are asking these questions, better now than with an offer looming over your head.

That does sound pretty bleak... How is YUL's flying and equipment these days; I've got to imagine much better than out west? Wondering how far you have to be from the airport for reserve. Again, can't thank you and the other posters enough for the guidance.

YUL is busier, the reserve report time is 2 hours, and that’s to the gate. One other thing about the YYC DH8 is most pilots are scheduled to 18 days a month, with all the DH’ing around you don’t actually fly much and it’s challenging to pick up OT.

[yowflyer23]

Out of curiosity, how do people make the commute to YUL work when living in YOW with a 2 hour callout to the gate on reserve? It's 1hr45-50 just to the employee parking lot and that's without traffic... Still have to find parking, walk to the terminal and clear security. Do you just rip down the 417 at 150km/h? Seems like it would be cutting it real close.

[Full Ins]

2 hours to report time which is an hour before flight