Continental wives/SO's

[amelia]

My DH is thinking of applying to Continental. He was wondering what your DH's/SO think of the airline. Any and all feedback would be great, benefits, pay, QOL, junior base, junior plane and so on. Also, do you need to know someone there to give you a recommendation in order to get hired? Is it easy to get on there?

[Amanda]

Hi-
Nick has been there since January but so far he is really happy there! The 1st year pay and no med insurance for the 1st 6 months is the worst part. There are only 3 bases (Houston, Newark, Cleveland) and Guam if you want to include that. There is no junior equipment or base- in Nick's class some got 737, 757/767, and 777. It went by seniority- the oldest got to pick equipment/base first. I do believe in Nick's class they only had EWR and IAH available. In the next class a few went to Guam!

And yes, you definitely need to know somebody to get in. If not it will take a long long time to get called. My best advice is NETWORK! The Cpt that brought Nick's app in was a new acquaintance. Nick also had numerous (8 or so) letters of rec and a military background. There is also a sim test along withe the panel interview.

[amelia]

Originally Posted by Amanda

Hi-
Nick has been there since January but so far he is really happy there! The 1st year pay and no med insurance for the 1st 6 months is the worst part. There are only 3 bases (Houston, Newark, Cleveland) and Guam if you want to include that. There is no junior equipment or base- in Nick's class some got 737, 757/767, and 777. It went by seniority- the oldest got to pick equipment/base first. I do believe in Nick's class they only had EWR and IAH available. In the next class a few went to Guam!

And yes, you definitely need to know somebody to get in. If not it will take a long long time to get called. My best advice is NETWORK! The Cpt that brought Nick's app in was a new acquaintance. Nick also had numerous (8 or so) letters of rec and a military background. There is also a sim test along withe the panel interview.

No med insurance for the first 6m!! Yikes. With 2 kids, thats kind of scary.

A lot of people my DH used to work with at ACA/Independence went to Continental. I wonder if he can get one or a few of them to give him a good word. I'm about to e-mail one of my friends that is there who is an FO on the 757/67 also (I think that's what he is on). Hopefully he will give a good work for DH even though he met him once!

Thanks for the info!!!

[lucky81698]

Amelia,

My husband has been there almost 2 years now. He came from XJT as one of the preferential hires. Like Amanda says, the first year pay is awful, although it did just go up to $30.57/hr, no matter what plane you fly and no insurance for the first 6 months. But once you get insurance, it is pretty decent. We pay $203/month for a family with BCBS. We have never had a problem with it at all. Not as cheap as other places, but not expensive as some either.

The way they pay is I think very strange. For instance if you fly a 737-800 you make the same pay as a 757 pilot! they have blended rates for the 737 series and for the 757/767 series. The full deadhead pay just came back to so that is good. EWR 737 is really the most junior base/seat. But they will offer whatever they have available. It used to be years to get to CLE, but I know guys junior to Bill that are already there. He could hold EWR 777 F/O but would be on reserve so he stayed EWR 737 FO. He has a ton of people behind and is already at 38% in base/seat.

As far as QOL goes, that is up and down. Since PBS came into effect, it kinda sucks. The system does not honor seniority and alot of people are pissed. Bill has had decent schedules except for his vacation and training months. Then they have gotten screwed up with the PBS thing. The contract is a piece of crap! Can't say too many good things about it! XJT had a much better contract! But negotiations have already started for parts of the new one, so hopefully it will be better. This PBS and some other union antics have alot of people pissed off, so hopefully the futrue will be better.

They are still hiring alot and I heard they want to hire 100/month since UA started hiring again and NW is probably going to be soon, so they can try to get the best people before the other places take them. (just a rumor) The more letters of recommendation he has the better. There is a special thing to fill out with the application regarding this. The person is sent an email telling him that so and so has applied to CAL and gives the link to go to fill out the info, so they don't actually walk in a letter. But if you had a friend that could walk something extra in to a chief pilot I'm sure that wouldn't hurt. As long as that person is not a problem employee of course!!!

The non rev passes are $12.50 each way, that's if you can get on a flight of course! You get a limited number during the first 90 days, then unlimited after that. They have alot of agreements with other airlines too.

Oh and if you do end up in Guam, there is no waiting period for the insurance!
PM me if you have any other questions.

Jan

[mcmuffinpilot]

good luck with your decsion, My DH works with EXJ and enjoys working with Continental pilots !

[Rebes]

My Dh has been with Continental for 8 years. He also came from flying for ACA, and had someone write a recommendation for him, and in return they have hired people that my DH has recommended. My DH has been really happy there, and he feels secure in the company, which is hard to do in the airline industry. He started out as a 737 FO and has just upgraded to the 757/767. He feels like the pay the first year was horrible, but after that we have been moving up steadily with a good quality of life. He was only on reserve once in the beginning, and it wasn't that long. He commuted from DC (IAD) to EWR, and that has surprisingly been easy.
Another thing that was huge for me is that I got very ill, and had to go to the hospital for treatments once a week for a couple of months. The company was very considerate, and paid my DH for trips when he had to be with me in the hospital. That took a lot of stress off of us, and I thought that said a lot for the compnay.
Good Luck, I know a lot of people are there from ACA!