Regional pilots, how often do you switch livery/carrier you fly under
Posted by Throwawayyacc22@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 35 comments
Pretty much what the title says, especially for a company like skywest, they have contracts with different airlines, are you typically flying American eagle for a whole 3 day trip, or does it change day to day
Also are there any different actions you have to take specific to the one you’re flying? I hope that makes sense, I feel like it’s hard to convey that question
RussVan@reddit
At Skywest E175 out of LAX it’s not that uncommon to fly a 4 day trip and have a different airline for every day. It’s rare that all 4 days would be the same airline. 99.8% of the procedures are the same regardless.
Alaska is notable just because every flight we have to be handed a physical paper with the cargo numbers to enter into acars instead of it being done automatically for us. Kind of annoying and sometimes delays flights but really no big deal. And technically for Alaska we are almost always supposed to call dispatch and let them know we are 15 minutes from landing. Almost no one regularly does this though.
American has a “no electronic devices” light switch instead of”no smoking”
United’s planes are usually older and therefore usually more worn down/broken
Delta has a few old Compass planes which again are broken a lot and just generally slightly different
It is significantly more different for the flight attendants which have entirely different service procedures for each airline.
cottoneyedjoe7@reddit
I used to be a ramper with Alaska and I remember we always had to run the load sheet up to you for skywest flights. It was really annoying for us too, with QX and AS flights it was all scanned and automatic. I’m not sure why it’s not automated yet for OO
RussVan@reddit
Wait you can do that for Alaska and Horizon? Normally I’d say Skywest was being cheap, but we can do it for all other airlines so what gives?
Also what’s up with Alaskas marshalling. Everyone does it the same except for Alaska which uses a few non standard hand signals. For example, you guys don’t ever salute. Instead you push us back and then hold one arm up and one arm down at a 45 degree angle. What does that mean? What am I supposed to do in response?
cottoneyedjoe7@reddit
I have no clue, my best guess is the two systems aren’t able to be integrate or something like that.
About the marshaling, when one wand is straight up and the other down and out to the side, that is our “All Clear” signal. We’re just saying all ground equipment and personal are clear and you’re good to move whenever you’re ready. Most pilots will just give us a flash of the taxi light or a wave to acknowledge, and at my station at least we would salute afterwards just for the fun of it.
7layeredAIDS@reddit
I flew at Republic. In general one “trip” would all be done under one codeshare. However, during IROPS or even while on reserve, you could have a “pairing”/“rotation”/“trip” that has different codeshares mixed in all in one day. Usually it is company discretion if they need to build a trip that way and it’s never to your benefit. For example, if you’re on a United trip and there is an AA deadhead at the end that gets you home earlier, too bad. It’s a united trip and they can’t mix codeshares. But if it’s a reserve assignment and they need to mix them to “make the trip work”, all is good! Go figure.
As far as what’s different between them, not much. Remember it’s the same aircraft, so from an actual flying perspective, nothing changes. Mostly it’s operational differences. There are some minor dry ice limitations that differ and your PA’s might be slightly different referring to yourself as American Eagle vs Delta Connection etc. Delta really harped on us for more PA’s and making the welcome aboard announcement standing at the front of the cabin for example. American Eagle usually planned us with less extra gas than the other two so I would be conscious to watch for that and request more if necessary. American actually told us, they would rather us be a few minutes LATE, but fly the published cost index, then burn extra gas to make an on time arrival. Some bean counter must have done the math on that. Delta over blocked the time more than the other two which usually meant you had more time to play with to be “on time” and imo their operations ran the smoothest. United was very comparable to DL in most ways.
(Btw I’m not trying to poopoo AA. I have very close friends working there and their pilots are the same as anywhere else. But those were my observations at RPA)
takeoffconfig@reddit
Confused why flying under the Eagle banner would give you less gas? It's all RPA dispatchers, so the fuel policy should be the same.
7layeredAIDS@reddit
It’s not the same - remember regionals contract with different airlines. You are contracted with a certain major. You fly under their name and do things the way they want it done. As the regional you supply the crews, the planning and management staff, maintenance and the aircraft. That team then operates the way that particular major wants things done.
In a dumbed down way, republic will go to say united for example and say “for this particular route we can operate it on your behalf for ____ ($$$)”. United might say “not good enough! Can you get it lower?” “Uhhh…we can back off the cost index”. “Okay do that and we got a deal”. I mean it’s not that elementary of a conversation/negotiation but that’s the just. Now later, if the captain wants more gas for ‘safety’ then sure no problem. But we needed to pay attention to that planned landing gas and know when to ask for more, which happened significantly more on AA than DL or UA.
takeoffconfig@reddit
Interesting! I used to DX for a wholly owned regional, now I'm up in the pointy end, so not familiar with RPA dx methods directly but definitely will have to reach out to my friends over there and learn more. When I was DXer if the fuel policy was more restrictive than I thought was appropriate I'd hook folks up with a generous alt and just update it to something closer enroute if the crew and I felt like we needed to "unlock" more fuel.
TraxenT-TR@reddit
This is probably all rumor not fact... but I heard they keep a list of captains who fly faster that assigned CI and don't single engine taxi or run the APU all the time. Apparently it is cheaper to not use those captains for AA trips, and have someone who does do all the "cost saving" stuff fly it instead. Once again could be all bs but that is what I've heard. Specifically for YX
7layeredAIDS@reddit
This is absolutely BS and a scare tactic. And it does not respect authority. There was a rumor also that like delta would t hire you if you weren’t single engine taxiing a lot or making your boarding PA’s at the front of first class. They DID keep track of some things when I was there like SE taxi, but it did not affect your future legacy employment. Legacies might keep track of how their contracted regionals do on fuel for example as a whole, or Delta might see that OO is better than YX with their customer announcements for example but not at the individual level.
TraxenT-TR@reddit
Yeah I was going to mention this as well, fact they could hinder your employment based on it.
Scare tactics employed by regionals to people they know are desperate to leave so...
7layeredAIDS@reddit
A company can tell another company that you are or are not eligible for employment. That’s it.
K20017@reddit
It is BS, I talked to the company... (Don't know the title but would handle the fuel side and cost index stuff) who said at one point they did but don't do it anymore. This was around 2022 or so. It doesn't really make sense though, considering they would have to block said captains on bid preference.
hypnotoad23@reddit
That would be an abrogation of seniority since I bid in PBS the same as the other captains, so I can guarantee you it doesn’t happen like that.
manualflexsrs@reddit
What a joke. Just a bunch of little slaves.
BWEJ@reddit
What is this weird-ass account?
prex10@reddit
Says the 2 day old account and likely slave over in China being forced to post for crimes against Winnie the Pooh
CulturalStick3405@reddit
What an odd little person
7layeredAIDS@reddit
You could say the same for a lot of professions out there.
Used to work a cubicle gig. Now THAT made me feel like a pawn.
PLIKITYPLAK@reddit
Biggest lesson I learned is to keep all your announcements generic. i.e. don't say "Thank you for flying with Delta", say "Thank you for flying with us". Otherwise no matter how careful you are you will inevitably thank a planeload of pax for flying on a airline they are not flying. Ask me how I know.
jas417@reddit
Hahaha so when that happened did you find a way to crack a joke, try to explain the mistake or just let it slide leaving probably leaving some confused but hopefully not concerned passengers because eh destination they said was right?
PLIKITYPLAK@reddit
It was the arrival PA at the top of decent so I didn't even know I did it until after the flight and the FAs told me. They said there were a lot of confused looks. I was a FO at the time and the first 6 months on the job. The CA said just do what I do and keep it generic and that is what I did for the rest of my time at the Regionals.
Smooth-Apartment-856@reddit
Thank you for flying Valujet…
K20017@reddit
No need to ask, that was me.
Grim-Nimbus@reddit
My trips are all mixed. Typically two carriers per four day. I've had three, but still waiting to fly all our banners in one trip!
554TangoAlpha@reddit
During Covid OO got allowed to build trips with different partners. So in a 4 day you could fly for all 4 different partners lol.
spitfire5181@reddit
95% of the time you stick to one airline for a trip. Every once in a while they may build pairings where you touch multiple airlines but it's rare. On reserve anything can happen and you could potentially fly multiple airlines in a day.
Apart from making announcements, the only thing that may change is the procedural stuff when you're interacting with an airline's operations. Calling ops to confirm gate upon landing vs not, or calling in range vs not.
A lot of it is based specific too, I wouldn't expect to do much AA flying if you're SEA based.
JewofTVC1986@reddit
It happens to reserves but on one of the major carriers they watch to see what airline your going to and from.
Example: DHD on DL mainline to go fly a UA regional flight. I was the CA on a flight once that was held to remove crew members that were going to fly for another airline.
manualflexsrs@reddit
What a joke
hawker1172@reddit
Whats a joke
Throwawayyacc22@reddit (OP)
Good to know, thanks!
Weasel474@reddit
At SkyWest, I'd usually see 2-partners a trip. It's only one partner a day (unless crew support wants to do some weird crap), but not unusual to swap a few times while out. For us, though, it's all the same. You fly according to company procedures, and excluding some small stuff like Alaska still using paper cargo load reports or United wanting you to use silent push, there's no difference.
InGeorgeWeTrust_@reddit
Depends on the regiOOnal and base.
It’s not uncommon for me to see a 4 day trip with 1 day that is a different partners flying.
For us pilots, it doesn’t really matter. The difference is all for the FAs.
Except AA. Make sure you wear that vest! Luckily their in range is all automatic with acars.
pooserboy@reddit
I remember doing one of my first trips on the American side and I’m not wearing my vest and the ramper is like “Hey there’s a supervisor out here somewhere get the vest on!” Thought to myself hm that’s odd never heard that in ORD
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Pretty much what the title says, especially for a company like skywest, they have contracts with different airlines, are you typically flying American eagle for a whole 3 day trip, or does it change day to day
Also are there any different actions you have to take specific to the one you’re flying? I hope that makes sense, I feel like it’s hard to convey that question
Please downvote this comment until it collapses.
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