Upgrade times

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Freetime
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Upgrade times

Post by Freetime »

With all of this movement, what are upgrade times like?
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Sharklasers
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by Sharklasers »

If you believe the interim bud right now there is 9 new hire A320 captains spots.
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bob99
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by bob99 »

The interim bid has new hires holding captain spots. I expect that to change, but we'll know for sure in a couple weeks when the bid closes.
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Dry Guy
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by Dry Guy »

0 Days
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Canadaflyer46
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by Canadaflyer46 »

Dry Guy wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 11:14 am0 Days
11 years quicker than WestJet then!
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Dry Guy
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by Dry Guy »

2 Years
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shellkibbles
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by shellkibbles »

Can someone explain to me (a noob) why upgrade times are so vastly different between Air Canada and Westjet? I would assume WestJet has much more turnover creating more room to upgrade so how can Air Canada be a couple years and Westjet be a decade?
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Bede
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by Bede »

One reason is seniority bidding. As a new hire captain my guess is that the schedule would be absolutely terrible and there's many pilots who would prefer to be more senior FO's than the bottom captain.
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tbaylx
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by tbaylx »

shellkibbles wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 2:23 pm Can someone explain to me (a noob) why upgrade times are so vastly different between Air Canada and Westjet? I would assume WestJet has much more turnover creating more room to upgrade so how can Air Canada be a couple years and Westjet be a decade?
Because Air Canada is expanding and adding widebody flying which requires more crew per aircraft than narrow-body. Westjet is largely stagnant/retreating to the west with new aircraft replacing old and very little expansion outside of Swoop.
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Curiousflyer
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by Curiousflyer »

tbaylx wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 8:17 am
shellkibbles wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 2:23 pm Can someone explain to me (a noob) why upgrade times are so vastly different between Air Canada and Westjet? I would assume WestJet has much more turnover creating more room to upgrade so how can Air Canada be a couple years and Westjet be a decade?
Because Air Canada is expanding and adding widebody flying which requires more crew per aircraft than narrow-body. Westjet is largely stagnant/retreating to the west with new aircraft replacing old and very little expansion outside of Swoop.
It’s almost entirely based on the bidding systems. Air Canada uses seniority, while WestJet uses a social bidding system. So the bottom Captain at WestJet (seniority) would have a similar similar schedule (lifestyle) as the top Captain. While at Air Canada, the top Captain would have a significantly better lifestyle than the bottom First Officer. Less days of work, no stats, no weekends, no red eyes, easier and more productive flying, etc.

If Air Canada used the same bidding system at WestJet, it would take 10 years to upgrade at Air Canada too.
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cjet
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by cjet »

Westjet is a very young company. Not many retirements. Very different story at AC.

Cjet
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altiplano
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by altiplano »

Schedule is possibly one thing, but it's an oversimplification.

The fact is that there is diversity of type of work at this airline. Different flying, sometimes better schedules, possibly higher pay, can be found in the right seat on fleets which are not 2 year upgrades.

777 FO can pay more than 220CA or even 320CA. Maybe you work fewer days, like going to Brazil or Japan, or just prefer doing 8 or 14 hour sectors vs. doing LaGuardia turns. Maybe you like hitting the bunk for a nap over the Pacific or Schweinhaxe is your thing. Then there are some guys that just like being on the big iron and plan to stay there until they hold the left seat.

Current junior 777 CA is over 20 years seniority.

Diversity in the job opens up opportunity... There are 19 different seats across 4 bases, 46 different possible positions for a guy to take at this airline, in fact there are 3 airlines. 4400 pilots with different goals in their work life and we are still short... that's what opens junior seats for junior guys.
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Curiousflyer
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by Curiousflyer »

cjet wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 1:17 pm Westjet is a very young company. Not many retirements. Very different story at AC.

Cjet
In percentage terms, WestJet has more mandatory retirements in the next 5 years than AC does.
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Canadaflyer46
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by Canadaflyer46 »

Does WJ have mandatory retirements? I thought we were the only airline where people fly well into their 70s.
‘You don’t retire from WJ, you either quit or die’ I thought was the saying 🤣
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FL030
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by FL030 »

No pension will do that.
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fish4life
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Re: Upgrade times

Post by fish4life »

FL030 wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 8:08 pm No pension will do that.
I think you meant to say divorces will do that…

If any westjet pilot has been around for an appreciable amount of time should have no problem retiring unless they grossly mismanaged their finances or have multiple ex wives to pay
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