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And Yet Another Deadline Missed


Bode

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My current assignment gives me 2 1/2 weeks contiguous off this month, and I’m only working Sunday-Wednesday the rest of the month. 

Did I mention it’s like that every month?

2nd year pay on the maddog, grossing $10k-$12k a month. 

Getting tired of fishing...

vote with your feet!

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I've managed to work just 4 days per month every month since April.  I'm running out of things to do around the house and the wife keeps asking if I can go back to work.  

 

I second the statement...VOTE WITH YOUR FEET!  And we wonder why people are bailing...

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As a counter point, I commute to reserve in the 737 in NYC covering three airports. I am on a plane commuting to my crash pad as I write this.

I've only been with AA since March, so my seniority is low, but I could have transferred to Miami, DC, Los Angeles, or Boston already. NYC is better for me since I live in PA.

I sit 18 days of reserve per month, so twelve days off. But if I get a bad month that could require me commuting on the days before and after my reserve blocks, that would cut my days off to 7 nights home. I make less money than I did in the AF, though that will change in a year.

In the AF I had it easier than most. Good assignments, much more interesting flying (though less frequent in the tanker), and a lot less time doing the terminal march. I rarely got tasked with inane additional duties, but that was mostly a function of having torpedoed my own career, so nervous DOs were disinclined to trust me with anything the OG/WG CC would see, which is everything in these micromanaged times. I never once wore blues or ABUs unless a specific event required it, and I planned no Christmas parties.

The airlines are 100x better than the AF. There is a logic and predictability to the job that changes the way you feel about work. Ever wonder how someone could work on a factory assembly line putting the same bolt into the same part for 8 hours a day, five days a week? I get it now. It's the lack of surprises. There is a strange power to it, and in the airlines you get the variety and adventure of flying with the intensely placating effect of knowing what the immediate and mid-term future hold for you. The exact same effect goes for your spouse/girlfriend/kids.

Do not discount it. It's not all lollypops and blow jobs, and commuting is a kick to the coin purse, but it's so much better than the AF that it will baffle you. An active duty retirement is not worth it, especially if you can chase a reserve or guard retirement after securing a seniority number.

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Yeah, the first year at the airlines sucks. However, due to the seniority system, every month is ever so slightly better than the previous, which is kind of the opposite of how the air force worked.

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If you are close* to an AD retirement, it is entirely worth it. The savings on family health insurance over the course of an airline career are absurd. And the cash for life makes year one pay palatable. 

*-within 3 years or so....depending on how bad you’ve got it. 

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Healthcare costs depend on the airline. At the airlines I’ve been, healthcare premiums ranged from 0 to 80 per month. One paid my Tricare Reserve Select premiums. One has retiree health insurance which pretty much torpedoes the whole “stay in for the healthcare!” argument. So to sum up: depends on the company.

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Someone in my sq got an email from someone claiming to be his sponsor at his next assignment... before being notified of an assignment by any means, CC/robot email.  Best part, apparently it wasn't what he was expecting based on his last conversations with old CC that switched out a couple weeks ago.

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3 hours ago, raimius said:

Sometimes I wonder if the system is really this screwed up, or if we just tell ourselves there is a system. 

Nailed it.

I got notified side channel from the functional because I made so much noise.  Still waiting on official notification and the RIP.

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24 minutes ago, FourFans130 said:

Nailed it.

I got notified side channel from the functional because I made so much noise.  Still waiting on official notification and the RIP.

Shocked that the functional even reached out to you at all even if you started making waves. We all know the squeaky wheel gets the grease. 

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43 minutes ago, cragspider said:

Shocked that the functional even reached out to you at all even if you started making waves. We all know the squeaky wheel gets the grease. 

New functional.  Seems to sincerely care. 

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16 hours ago, Azimuth said:

This probably doesn't make anyone feel good, but one of the dudes on the 11M assignment team PCS'd last week to Italy. So, at least his assignment was one time...

You mean dudette, right?

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  • 1 month later...

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