For those pilots flying the 757 and the 767 internationally from Boston, there are 27 different schedules we can choose that fly four different kinds of trips:

• Turns (one-day trips) – to Saint Thomas, Santo Domingo or Aruba. These high time trips give you the most days off.

• A three-day Barbados – not much flight time, which means you'll fly more days in a month, but the full day on the beach on the second day makes up for that.

• The two-day London – a high time trip that most pilots prefer.

• The three-day Panama City and Caracas – that departs very early the first day and gets back after midnight on the third day.

These trips change every couple of months, which is why the bid sheet is eagerly awaited every month. Even though there aren't many different destinations to choose from, I can't remember a time when we've had so many quality trips. I'd be thrilled to hold any of the first three trips above. The Panama City and Caracas layovers tend to go junior, meaning the pilots with the least amount of seniority usually fly there. Even after 15 years at the company, I'm relatively 'junior' on the list, with 4/5ths of the other co-pilots above me. The first six pilots usually choose the London flights, and the Caribbean turns where you're home every night are usually the next most popular.

If you're at the bottom 20%, you're likely to find yourself on reserve, which is like being 'on call.' If someone calls in sick, the company will call you to fly. Usually you find out what you'll be doing the day before. Reserve pilots usually fly less often than a scheduled pilot would and they get paid a flat 90% of a full schedule.

I've been lucky enough to hold a line for the last six months straight, but I was awarded a reserve schedule for next month. Hopefully I'll get called out for a NY or Miami based trip (they often run short of pilots there) to someplace we don't fly to from Boston.

We go to training every nine months, and I'm scheduled to go down for five days of training next month. Of course I'll be writing about that.


As we approached Santo Domingo today, we had our usual challenge in understanding the controllers there. The tower controller was especially difficult to understand. Since the runway is closed for repairs, we're landing on what was formerly the taxiway. Because of this, we had to turn around on the runway to taxi back to the gate. After our runway "U-turn" we were looking straight at a Cessna Caravan a few hundred feet off the ground heading toward us. The Caravan pilot obviously saw us, and I'm sure he just continued his approach until it became completely obvious that the controller's plan wasn't going to work. He went around and lined up again for landing a few minutes later.

Maybe I'll bid around flying to Santo Domingo for a while. With just a little more seniority I should be able to reliably hold the Panama City/Caracas trips. And once you get a schedule, you are free to trade around, which is how I've been able to fly to London and Barbados on occasion.

With your seniority number deciding what trips you fly, what base you fly from, when your vacation occurs and, most importantly, when you will upgrade to captain, you can imagine just how important this number is to pilots. It's so important, in fact, that it can even hold up an airline's merger plans.


Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent's trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.