Nonreving Fun

                                 Our successful nonrev trip to Japan!



So the airlines try to sell nonreving as a "'perk" of working for them, in fact the regional dh worked at told them it was worth $10,000 a year. I would have rather had them pay him the extra $10,000 to be honest, it would have been more useful.  For non-aviation folks nonreving means non-revenue passenger, it is flying standby if there is a seat available.  Airlines have different agreements with other airlines regarding this, at dh's airline I can fly on them and also pay taxes (plus some) to fly on other airlines.  Weather I fly on dh's airline or a different one it is still standby, seat available.

So lets start out with this, nonreving is not for the faint of heart.   When you nonrev you are last to get on, heck I have had some gate agents send me down to the plane when they aren't even sure there is even a seat left, only to have to walk back up when everyone shows up.  You also stand the chance of being treated like crap by the gate agents.  Now as a paying passenger you're probably sitting there saying they treat everyone like that, which might be true.  The difference is that you (as a paying passenger) can complain or at least be mad about being treated like crap, where as I (when a gate agents screams at me, yes it's happened) has to stand there and smile and say "I'm sorry."  Even though I'm not sure what I did and I'm sure not sorry, because if the gate agent reports to the company that I was a rude/angry/pita, in anyway we would lose our pass travel privileges and dh could lose his job.  So that's the downside, dealing with unpleasant gate agents, and not knowing if you are going to make your flight, hard to plan a vacation that way.

So the perks when they work are fantastic.  We just got back from an awesome whirlwind trip to Japan, courtesy of nonreving.  The flip side is that we didn't know we were going for sure until we got on the plane, which makes it hard to plan but thankfully our friends who we were visiting understood.  It also meant that we had to adjust our travel day once (or twice) but it all worked out. The key with nonreving is Flexibility..  If we hadn't made the flight we had a backup, and we had a backup to location.  If we couldn't go to Japan we would have gone to Europe or Hawaii, or really where ever there were empty seats.  Flexible.

    Our less than successful trip to Frankfort for Christmas Markets...but a lot of FUN!

The key with nonreving (besides Flexible) is fun! Honestly that's the best way to look at it.  One of the most fun nonrev trips I have done was to Disney World for Mickey's Christmas Party with our friends.  Originally we were all going to meet in Frankfort, but because of the Lufthansa strike dh and I couldn't get there.  So we all changed courses and headed to Orlando for some Disney Fun!  Even getting to Florida was a bit of a challenge for dh and I, when we walked into Midway it was chaos due to weather.  So instead of going to Orlando we went to Tampa and drove over, I booked the car when we were walking down the jet bridge! Again Flexible.

The honest truth is if you can't be flexible and have to be someone where, or if you don't want to deal with crappy gate agents and middle seats, buy a ticket.  I have bought tickets in the past and actually have some for later this year, if its a strict timeline and super important then buy a ticket.  Nonreving is not for events where you have to be there.  For instance I will buy a ticket to get on the cruise and nonrev home, I for sure don't want to miss the cruise but don't mind if I sit for a day (or two) in the airport on the way home. 

So happy travels no matter where you end up!!

"You must always be able to predict what's next and then have the flexibility to evolve."
Marc Benioff

A Tale of Two Perspectives

,                                                Perspective






Perspective is something I think is important to have in the aviation industry. Everyone has a different path in this industry, some come from military background, some go to college specifically to be an airline pilot, there are many paths to being an airline pilot.  With each path each pilot has taken comes perspective.
There is no "wrong" path be becoming a pilot, where people run into a problem is that they believe that their perspective is the only one. 

In this industry luck truly is 90% of when/where you get hired, the other 10% (I would say) is networking.  Since luck does play such a huge part in your career trajectory, people who have been lucky lack perspective on what happens to the less fortunate.  This doesn't make them bad people, but they also aren't necessarily people want to talk/work with. 

A Tale of Two Perspectives

For example dh flew with a CA (we will call him Bob)a few months ago that he has become friends with, he is younger than dh (that gets more and more common these days) but he was a great guy, I even got to meet him once when I was non-reving!  Bob is great and very down to earth, easy to get along with, and understands that nothing in this industry is a given.  Bob was furloughed from his regional and was lucky to get hired on where is now currently and upgrade relatively early in his career.

Now onto CA Jack (again not real name), Jack is also younger (younger than Bob even) Jack got hired here when he was 22.  Jack isn't a bad guy (hey he bought everyone coffee!) but lacks the perspective of a hard airline career.  Jack tends to think every one can do what he did in their career and doesn't understand how someone can be 40, have a masters, and still only be an FO.  Jack can't understand this because Jack's never had anything bad happen in his career, he lacks perspective, and to be honest acts entitled.  This comes across when talking to him in his attitude.

Honestly though age has not much to do with perspective, it seems life experiences are much more of an indication on this.  I have met some really great down to earth guys in the industry that are in their mid to late twenties, these are almost always the guys who have been either A) furloughed or B) worked at an airline that went bankrupt.  These guys pass no judgement on anyone, after all they understand the instability of the industry and the way it works.  I have also met 40+ year olds who act/sound immature because they have been lucky in their career and don't understand why everyone doesn't just do what they did.  Then there are the guys who have been lucky and they know it, these guys are great, no condescending remarks and comments about how "easy" they have had it.

I *might* be biased but dh has a pretty good attitude about his career.  He's been through a furlough, a fake flow through, his regional being sold, and he still loves his career and won't even consider doing something else besides flying, trust me I've tried.  But recently he's gotten really down on himself and his career, this has something to do with his very sad W-2, but also he's flown with a few guys recently who have been the lucky ones and lack perspective, and think that everyone should have done what they did.  These aren't the people anyone wants to fly with, so even if you don' have perspective have some understanding that perhaps not everyone is as lucky as you.

Rich Pilot, Poor Pilot

                                          At least it is a nice view


Thanks to 9/11 and all the ensuing bankruptcies there are very few "rich" pilots save for some southwest guys who got good stock options back in the day.  Contrary to popular belief airline pilots are not swimming in money and lighting hundred dollar bills in the cockpit while your stuck in the back.

I know every single one of you who isn't in the aviation industry will google this as soon as you read this so let me help you Now the next thing your going to do is say the average is $98,000, that seems pretty good, and it is pretty good.  I for one would be ecstatic if dh made that a year.  However after 14 years as an airline pilot that's not what he's making, not even close.  Remember that $98,000 is the average which means that half make more and half make less.

 I'm sure at this point if you're not in aviation you're thinking to yourself so get another job that pays better, after all dh has been flying for 14 years he should be able to "move up the ladder" so to speak.  I certainly wish this was true.  In fact dh has had 3 different airline jobs, but you see at the airlines unlike most other jobs your past experience doesn't count for jack shit, it only helps you to get an interview.  Since dh has flown the 757 you would think that maybe he could go to United/Delta/FedEx who all fly 757 and say "I have X number of hours flying this plane and I was an instructor on it. I also have my masters in Aviation Safety, I am worth X number of dollars so that's what you will pay me."  However it doesn't work like that, the experience gets you the interview and maybe the job but that's where your useful experience ends. If you are hired you are placed in seniority order from date of hire, below everyone already hired, no matter if you have experience or not. Along with this every airline you start with places you on first year pay regardless of experience. So the philosophy of "moving up the ladder" doesn't work so well in the airline world.


Now you might be ok with your pilot making almost $100,000 a year which is fine but then think about getting on a flight where the pilot makes $15,000 for the year, still feel as comfortable?  True all pilots have the same standard FAA training BUT  I bet you that guy making $15,000 is more stressed.  At some point in everyone's life (well most everyone) you've had a crappy McDonald's type job that paid this, but it was probably when you were in high school, and maybe college.  Not when you are 40 and trying to figure out how to pay a mortgage and feed your family.  So you do what almost all pilots do (besides load up on credit card debt), you go cheap whenever you can ie: load up on free breakfast from the hotel.  Being the poor pilot you are you will stash away some of your breakfast and eat it for the rest of the day, you can't afford to buy anything else if you are only taking home $15,000 a year.  I know that dh has many times only eaten yogurt and a can of cold ravioli all day (or ramen) in order to cut costs.

Only a small percentage of your plane ticket actually goes to paying for the pilot. While this chart is about 7 years old the numbers have not changed much.  So on average you are paying $3.72 per hour of your flight toward pilot pay.  Say you are on a two hour flight only $7.44 of your ticket goes to pay your pilot.  Doesn't seem like a lot now does it?  The rest goes toward; fuel, maintenance, insurance, and of course greedy airline CEO's.

Real poor pilot examples; dh and two other new hires at his airline compare W-2's.  One made $35,400, one made $25,300 and dh made almost exactly $26,000.  That is total, not take home.  Dh took home almost exactly $10,000 for the year. For flying an airbus full of people, with his 14 years of experience and his masters degree.  This number isn't sad, its pathetic. This is why I get so upset when people say pilots are rich, yes some are well off, but  some are barely scarping by.  Think about that next time you get on a plane.

Mythical Pilot Shortage

                                    Somewhere out there....is a pilot shortage.

                                       


You know that old saying "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."  This can be true of applying at airlines to, it never fails to amaze me the number of people who will only apply at certain airlines.  If you are that desperate to get out of your current job, why would you not apply everywhere (that would be a step up) and hope for the best.

Honestly the whole "pilot shortage" is not every really going to happen at the major level, its just not.  As the majors retire the boomers they will shrink the airline, farming more out to regionals and code sharing with other carriers.  Yes they will have to hire some but it's not going to be in the huge numbers that people are expecting. So why would you limit yourself to just one airline?

Lets play the numbers game shall we?  So I just added up the number of pilots of 4 large regionals this is about 14,000 pilots (numbers from apc).  Going by the numbers that people have posted for hiring I would guess that maybe (if no unforeseen circumstances) the airlines (non-regional)will hire about 4000 people next year.  So you have about a 29% chance of being hired, remember your millage may vary as I only have numbers for 4 regionals and did not include hiring numbers from cargo companies.

The pilot shortage doesn't look so good when you and more than 14,000 of your closest friends are competing for 4,000 jobs. Its unfortunate but for right now it's the reality.  This means that unless you are happy staying at your regional and never moving on you need to apply everywhere.  Yes, everyone wants to go to Delta, the reality is they are only hiring around 1400 people this year out of more than 14,000.  And before everyone freaks out, I'm not saying it's not possible I'm saying it's not probable.  So unless you are happy staying at your regional (or wherever you are) apply everywhere.  Other wise please don't come crying to me about how much you hate your regional but have only applied to one airline.

* regionals used were XJT, SkyWest AE and Republic
*majors hiring numbers were from DAL UAL, AA, NKS F9, SWA, JB

The Truth About Training

Since dh just finished his annual pc (proficiency check) I thought this might be a good time to talk about training and how much it sucks for everyone.  I have been fortunate enough (haha) to have gone through 4 major training events with dh as well as all the yearly proficiency checks.  They all have sucked some more than others. See the truth about training and why its awful is this; in every training event their job is on the line. Period.  It's super stressful and they are not allowed to make ANY mistakes. ANY.  This makes for some super happy fun times but understandable so.

Now I'm sure your thinking well someone must fail training and they don't get fired so it's not as bad as you make it sound.  True some people do fail check rides and make mistakes, after all we are human.  And true these people (probably) won't lose thier jobs.  But what does happen is it goes into the pilots "Permanent record" at the FAA, which if he ever goes to apply at another airline for a job they can see that he has failed a check ride, so this failure will follow him and haunt him for the rest of his career. True people do get hired at airlines with failures BUT not often, and who wants to take that chance when there are a lot of people competing for a few jobs it's a detriment if you have a failure in your record.

So this is how we end up with super stressed pilots during training, and why I do everything I can to be nice and support dh during training, because short of his parents or sister dying I wouldn't tell him anything.  Dh who is normally a nice even keeled guy can be short, snippy and do things that baffle me during training.  I just take it in stride and put it down to stress. I also don't call dh during training at all, unless its me calling him to make sure he's awake. I let him call me when its convient for him to take a break, these are usually short converstaions.  I wouldn't want to disturb him while he is studying or if he is asleep, I want in no way shape or form want to be at fault and add stress to his training.

The 4 big Training Events:

Upgrade-  I had just met dh right before his upgrade at XJT.  Honestly this was the best training event I have been through with dh maybe because we were dating and not living together so I didn't get the full awfulness of it.

MD-80 new hire training - This was awesome it was over his birthday and Easter and our Anniversary.  How many holidays can you hit in one training event?  I did get him a card and sent it with him, for his birthday.  Didn't see him for Easter or our Anniversary, he called me on our anniversary but that's as much as a I got.  Also his favorite dog died during training and I didn't tell him until he got home.

757  training - As far as training goes this was great in dh's book, they used the United sims in Denver and it was very thorough dh was very happy with how well the training program worked.  However I ended up having kidney surgery while he was in training.  Then had complications and ended up in the hospital for 4 days while dh went back to training and I spent some quality time by myself in the hospital until my mom came to stay with me.  Once I was released from the hospital I flew home by myself (surgery was out of state) drove home from the airport 5 days after surgery picked up our dogs from the kennel and went back to taking care of our horses, all while dh was in training.

A320 training  - Hands down the worst more stressful training EVER. There were no big catastrophe like me having surgery or a dog dying, but due to Spirits super condensed training dh was a basket case.  The days were really long and then they had  minimum number of  days in the sim before the type ride. It was awful, it was beyond awful, I would have rather sat in the hospital by myself again.  They also kept changing things while they were in training so one day it would be one way, the next day it would be a different way.  I am extremely thankful to dhs sim partner they were both panicked so it worked well and they worked well together. It honestly got to the point where I didn't want to talk to him because he was making me panic!  Thankfully he and his sim partner passed but every year the pc is awful, just something we have become accustomed too.

You never know the true hell of training until you live through it, your hubby (or boyfriend) might be the nicest person in the world but put them in a training environment and they turn into a person who is unrecognizable to you, trust me this is normal.

One Year Ago Today!

One year ago I started on my bucket list run.  I had run 3 half marathons before signing up for the Dopey Challenge at Disney world.  It took place Thursday-Sunday, and was a 5K,10K, half, and full marathon, each day you ran a longer distance.  I had never run a marathon and to be honest had never really thought of running a marathon, that's a looonnngggg way, and with all my health problems I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it!  So this is mainly a blog in pictures. Enjoy!



 
 The most influential person in my running career Jeff Galloway.  I love him and his run/walk method it's what got me through the Challenge.  He was also very surprised to hear that in less than a year I went from running my first half marathon to doing the Dopey Challenge.



                     5K

 

                Pre-5K breakfast!

The volunteers were awesome!

Post 5K getting my wristband for Dopey

In Epcot after the 5K

                                                                       10K

                     On to the 10K!  This is probably the best picture I have out of any of the races.

                         The only picture I have of me crossing the finish line of any of the races.

                                                       2 down 2 to go!

                       Half Marathon


My warm-up before the half.

                                      Running the half, at least I still look happy!

                                              Stopped to take a picture with the VW

                                            Closest thing I could find to a pilot :)

 Finished the half, this was my least favorite race, I hated the course and it was hot and humid.

                                                            
                                                            Marathon Day!!

 Pre-marathon the big event, the breakfast of champions, donuts and diet coke

The castle

 

The traffic looked Awful!

The lurking buses waiting to sweep people.

The final three medals; Marathon, Goofy and Dopey.

A picture with all 6 medals!

                                                              Post Race Fun!

                                                  Post Race at Downtown Disney

Most everyone was wearing the Dopey medal, not me, my favorite was the Marathon Medal, still can't believe that I ran one!

                                 Great group of folks I met online that all did the Dopey.

                                                    Mickey Striking a pose with me!

                                                                 Thumbs up!

 
The Awesome medal hanger my Aunt made me.  It has all my Disney Medals on it, plus one of hubbys.


All in all it was a great experience and I loved it.  I think 2016 will be Dopey Part II for me, as this year it was impossible due to my kidney and hip surgery. I really thought I would only run one marathon so I could cross it off my bucket list, but Dopey has enticed me to try again, bring on 201^!

Christmas as a Pilot's Wife

                                                   Merry Christmas from Disney!!!!

I will be the first person to say we are extremely lucky this year that dh is home.  That being said there have been many years when he wasn't, and that's the normal.

Let's start with the year that I met dh, he was in upgrade training in Houston (we had moved down there) and we didn't come home for Christmas.  My family was very understanding of this, especially considering I had known dh for 6 months at this time and it included a move across the country with him.  However dh's parents didn't understand this and I was blamed for him missing Christmas.  Great way to make an impression on future in laws right?

Fast forward to a few years later he was actually home for Christmas and his good friend (pilot) had an overnight where we lived at the time.  It was great even though it wasn't a long overnight there is nothing better than helping a pilot have at least have a little bit of home on the holiday.

Then there were the Allegiant years.  Which brought a whole other level of crap to the holidays.  My absolute favorite was the year they let him trip trade off Christmas, which was great we were so excited!  Until two weeks later, after we had already bought our tickets home it "magically" appeared back on his schedule, a lot of screaming ensued which resulted in the company (basically) telling us "too bad so sad it's on your schedule now."   The joke was ultimately on them though, due to their fantastic maintenance program dh had super scary emergency landing.  This in turn gave him Christmas off, even though he had to sleep in the airport after his flight and told the schedulers to go pound sand.  Communication was stellar the chief pilot gave him and the CA  (coincidentally one our best friends these days) and dh the time off because of the nature of the emergency, but didn't tell scheduling.  So scheduling kept calling dh asking where he was, he finally turned off the phone.  I picked him up at the airport Christmas Eve morning and the only thing he wanted was breakfast somewhere with a bar, it was bad.  Then there were the years I drove from ABQ-ORD by myself in the truck with the cats and dogs because dh couldn't any time off around Christmas (or Christmas).  Every Christmas has a story it seems in those Allegiant years.

Then there was last year, dh had just switched companies, which in and of itself was a fantastic Christmas present.  But we also knew that because of that he would be working.  Dh was home on Christmas Eve and I dropped him at the airport Christmas Day morning at 6am.  And my day went on from there, Christmas with his parents, and later in the day my family.  While dh got a nice turn to LGA.  Every year we make it work, some years are better than others no doubt, so I will leave you with a poem I wrote one year.  I was supposed to drove to Chicago but I got a hundred miles away and something was wrong with the truck so I flew at the last minute with a giant box of presents and a cat in a snow storm, it was fun...or something....also VERY expensive!

Christmas Time Pilot Wife Style (Night before Christmas)

T'was the trip before Christmas and all through the house

 everyone was stirring perhaps even a mouse.

The truck had been packed with less than a care

in the hopes that I would soon get the hell outta there.

The animals were snuggled all safe in the back

while visions of sugar plums danced while they yacked.

While me in the front along with puma the cat

had just settled down to drive forever at that.

When out on the road there was such a shudder

I turned back home before the truck went a flutter.

Back to the computer I ran in a dash

hoping to book tickets that wouldn't cost me much cash.

Success with free tickets, send me away

only to turn out at the airport I must stay.

And to what did my tired ass eyes  appear?

the snow of the century that all airport passengers fear.

When I spy a poor old F9 driver so sad and quick

I knew in a moment he must work for the "Revered  St Dick."

More rapid than a hare he said they went missed 4 times

and this will no doubt cost you another dime.

On Delta on Airways, American, and Continental

and whoever we could ride on without being judgmental.

 Into the line you must rush

to see how to get out of all this fuss.

 

So I call my pilot who flies in the sky

to shout about what is happening and why.

 Up to the front of the line I flew

to find out my ticket was book on American anew.

 

Then in a twinkling I heard on my phone

my husband calling to let it be known.

That I would be staying the night in a hotel,

because the roads to my house had closed...what hell!

 I schlepped all my bags, boxes, and cat

onto the hotel with all of my crap.

 In the morning I got free breakfast for my trouble,

and back to the airport where American charged me double.

By the time I arrived in Chicago I'm not merry

and want to beat the shit out of the Christmas fairy.

Little did I realize my fun was just beginning

back to the airport I drove to pick up my husband who was grinning.

 

Two days I got to see my husband before

he flew off to Ft Lauderdale once more.

Then quick as flash back  to the airport I drove to get him

and on Christmas Eve even by now I'm quite grim.

But my fun was not over, because I got sick myself

what better to visit an ER on Christmas day...when else?

After receiving two shots which I dread

the rest of the day passed in my happy floatly head.

Lucky for me I had a few days to shirk

before following dh to Ft. Lauderdale for work.

Could barely stay awake till midnight on New Year's Eve

then my one day at the beach it was 30 I was  peeved!

Then back to ORD I went like a missile

and waited for Dh to appear looking official.

The next morning again to the airport for our O'Dark thirty flight

And we finally made it back home before midnight!