Career advice for free, You should ask for a letter before you work your last day, Legally no one is allowed to provide a bad reference, equally they are no required to provide a good reference, but the company MUST provide a letter stating your dates of employment at that company and the Job you had i.e. Captain or FO . That is all they are required to provide. Most companies now DO NOT provide references because if they a big enough they have a legal dept which prevents them providing anything but the law requirement. This is so they cannot be held liable by saying.......jonjoguy was a good pilot.....then at the next air line you stuff something up, they can be held liable. There is a lot of law suits and precedent you can look up for this.
As you know you will need that verification of employment for the next 5 years at least, just in case the company goes belly up as in Monarch and Primera, if you do not get that letter you have no proof and have to go the personal route for the reference, but most companies will want the CP, DFO , TRE, ref.
If you have the dates employed letter then there is no problem at all. You can ask for this even if you are not applying anywhere else and leave the exit date open.
This has saved me at least 3 times whereas I got the job because I had the exact 5 years covered either at interview or on day 1 of employment.
People like West Atlantic refuse to provide ref because they are very bad airline and practice many illegal activities and like to hold their employees to ransom, If HR refuse to provide it then write one your self and take it to your line manager and get them to print it on company paper and sign it.
Keep all these letters in your own file for future interviews if necessary.
You should also get a copy of your training file or at least your last OPC/LPC, you are much more attractive to a new employer if you present all this and a current criminal background check at interview