Have a success story you'd like to share of how Crew Companion improved your quality of life? We'd love to hear it! If we share your story on our site, we'll credit you with a free month too!
However in order to access the success story submission form, you'll need to enable Javascript and Flash.
Below are some unsolicited, unedited emails we received that illustrates how effective eTripTrader can be for schedule improvement. We'd love to hear how eTripTrader has helped you too!
Tom,
Thanks for the info. I think you have a wonderful product! (and your support has been extraordinary). Although I am fairly senior in my seat, it allows me to make my schedule even better. Anything that allows me more time at home with the kids gets my vote!!! Thanks for all your hard work for all of us.
Lori M
I just moved and our phone service has not been set up yet. To make things worse, cell coverage at the new house is nil & I'm on reserve. I had 3 am short call & at about 0845 I checked my email and noticed that the trip etriptrader had picked up for me the next day was back in open time. It could only mean one thing, that I had been assigned a trip. I checked Unimatic & sure enough I've got a 3 day leaving in 4 hours. I called the crew desk to verify & they had called my cell & left a msg that I had not gotten due to the bad coverage.
With a 2 hour drive to IAD, I would not have made my trip had I not gotten the email from ett.
Thanks!
Alan B
I'd imagine you get a ton of "problem" emails. This one is just to pat you on the back and say thanks for producing and maintaining a great product that I enjoy very much - I may even have a slight addiction to it, according to my daughter. I am, of course, in denial to that accusation.
Sometimes technology is more trouble than it's worth. Last Tuesday, 2 Oct, I had a little trouble logging onto ETT. Found a workaround and got logged in to it anyway. Thought about sending you a note that evening but hoped it was a glitch that would be gone next day. Next morning ETT launched fine and was amazed to find the note about AOL making their unannounced change.
The big takeaway from this is the comfort in knowing your team is all over this stuff. With your program I never worry that it will cause more trouble than it's worth. And aggressive pickup - once again - worked like a champ this AM! Now I can go relax for the rest of the day -
"Fanatical" tech support is a very accurate descriptor for your work!
Thanks,
Tim L, DCAFO
WOW! I just had my first trip pick-up success (RSVPUO). I gotta tell you, that was one slick operation! And I didn't have to read lengthy manuals or tutorials to accomplish it. Just drag and drop the target trip onto the calendar (...anywhere on the calendar!) and ETT knows where to put it and when to start up and sign on to grab the trip. I watched it this first time to make sure it did the right thing and it was very fast in grabbing my trip for me. NO MORE sitting around the day before reserve duty to make phone calls or sign on to Unimatic. This is going to be awesome. I am so glad I downloaded this program.
Bill M
The only thing that's better than a notification about an open trip is a message "new trip is open, and YOU just got! :-). The autotrade just completed the Grand Slam. Anyway I am a line holder and on big pick I wanted to drop a trip -id 724/24, it was dropped on march 25th, at 1936z (1236pm MST) when big pick was run. Next I picked up id 807/8 on march 27th, at 1900 (12noon on the dot) when trip trading opened. Fast finger, very fast. Next trade was on march 31st - drop of id 807/8 and pick up of id 807/6 - same trip but a pick for an earlier date opened up a few days in that week to pick something else, as long as it was legal - as was getting into 30/7 problem. One never knows when a trip might open, frequently middle of the night, so I programmed Ett for an auto trade. Today as I was shopping with my wife my phone ringed, first with a notification that id 8253/8 just opened and few seconds later that it was mine.
Andy
Hi Tom and Chris -
After using your software for several years now I have to say that it is still the best! You guys have improved my QOWL so many times I've lost count!
The most recent example - I had a carryover conflict coming off a reserve month to a line month that caused me to lose my first trip and 15 hours of pay...OUCH!!
OK, so I'll just set some ETT criteria and see what happens. Sure enough, I managed to pick up a trip that made up for the loss. And the best part is that although it has a carryover conflict again the POS PBS system still let me pick it up!
End result - company e-mails me and says that although they have programming problems and let me pick up a trip while 'the solver' was running, I shouldn't have been able to pick up anything. So they have corrected the conflict by dropping the first trip of March and they are going to pay protect me for my original PBS line value of 84 hours! UFB! Running carryover problem solved, 15 hours of lost pay recaptured, and March pay of 84+ for 69+ hours of flying!
I hope they never program as tight as you guys!!! My thanks once again for an excellent service!!
Cheers, Bob Olea
I will be on reserve until I retire but eTripTrader had made reserve fun. OK, not quite fun but certainly workable.
As an international puke it’s tough to get 4 aggressive pickups in a month. You simply run out of time. I routinely get three in a bidding month and if the criteria were four agressives I a rolling 30 day period then I would break that regularly as well.
Once however I did manage to make the four aggressive pickups in one calendar month but it required a trip to the flight manager’s office (Yippi). Here are the facts: I got an aggressive pick-up at the beginning of the month (Jan 07) but weather prevented me from making my commute and I was “punished” with a domestic trip the next day. It’s really tough for us int’l F/Os to get mentally geared up to do both the cockpit setup AND the walk around (task saturation). Anyway, the two-day domestic trip let me finally make the four aggressive pickups in one bidding month.
Looking at the last four months I’ve gotten my normal three aggressive pickups but then something silly gets thrown in like a landing class, business training or an assigned flight with an LCA for flight currency.
Other than that, life is good.
Keep up the good work,
George C
SFOFO Perpetual Reserve
I’ve been an eTripTrader subscriber for about a year now after returning from over 3 years of furlough. When I first returned, scheduling would rule my life and fly me right up to 70 hours on reserve. I would end up working a lot of inefficient trips, working a lot of days and not having anything to show for it in my paychecks. With eTripTrader, I have been able to aggressively pick up more efficient trips and work fewer days. The improvement in QWL is great! In July, I was able to aggressively pick up 4 trips. Occasionally, someone beats me to a trip, but I set eTripTrader to send cell phone text message notifications of new trips meeting my criteria and still get a better trip than would be assigned by scheduling. I have friends that wake up at 4:00am to try and aggressively pick up trips, only to find out someone beat them to it. (Probably an eTripTrader subscriber!) When I want to pick up an ID that opens early in the morning, the only thing that wakes up is my computer! I was just able to pick up another ID this morning, so am on track to again this month for the Grand Slam Club. Being junior in a senior base like Denver, I will be on reserve for a long time. Being able to take control of my work life away from scheduling feels great! The tech support and customer support here has been outstanding. I continue to tell my friends and everyone I fly with, how much easier being on reserve is made by using your product. Thanks again!
Don K
DEN 320 F/O
Just wanted to tell you how happy I have been with etriptrader these past two years. I am 3 from the bottom A320 Capt in SFO and have been there for 2 1/2 yrs. The first couple of months I would wait for the crew desk to assign me trips or I would try Unimatic RSVPUO. Well then I became an etriptrader customer in early 2005 and have been able to get the trips that I want. I have gotten spoiled because I have only one time missed a trip I wanted because someone else got it. That is success at such a high rate. I love going to bed and leaving my computer on and then when I wake up seeing the text message on my cell and the email in my inbox. Everyone I fly with and jumpseat with I tell about how to improve QWL and also the free trial. Every month I pick up 3 - 4 aggressive pickups. In June 2007 I had 4 and as July 20th 2007 I had 4 also. So I have done the Grand Slam for reserve two months in a row. I am sure it has been more like 20 out of 24 months. I also want to say thanks for always answering the questions via voice and email and the great customer service you provide. Kepp it up. It is awesome and helps my life so much.
Take care and have a great day.
Regards,
Ed F
SFO 320 Cap
I’ve been talking up your program to everyone I fly with and I want to show everyone just what your program can do for a pilot who uses it to it’s fullest extent.
As a lowly reserve on the 737 in ORD, my quality of life is pretty low as you can imagine with 20 days on reserve a month. Your program however has improved my life significantly! Four times in February, I was able to know where I was going and when 28 hours prior to starting my time on reserve directly due to eTT. What a blessing to have the cell phone go off and to just show up for my trips like a line holder. For the record, I was able to aggressively pick up IDs 7239/3, 256/12, 159/20, and 129/27 accounting for nearly all of my flying in February.
Additionally, eTT alerted me to ID 322/7 and tried to aggressively pick up that trip. The trip had been assigned outside of the 28 hour window in error by the crew desk and the “failed aggressive pick-up” message that I got from eTT before the 28 hour window had opened alerted me to the crew desk error. A phone call to the crew desk resulted in the error being corrected and me getting the trip that I (and eTT) should have been able to aggressively pick up.
Even if you can’t aggressively pick up a trip automatically, eTT can alert you to trips that aren’t in silo that you would like to fly and you can call the crew desk to pick them up. This is particularly advantageous when you have the 6 day in a row stints of reserve. You can call in and pick up a trip out of silo with the crew desk’s concurrence when the 28 hour window opens. Though this didn’t happen in February, I have used it very successfully in the past with eTT’s help on finding open trips.
Your program has made my life much easier and I can’t say enough good things about it. Your support has been incredible and the frequent updates set a standard that will be hard to match.
Thanks for making this program work for us Tom. It has been a Godsend to me.
Sincerely,
Jim C
737 F/O ORDFO