Originally Posted by HAL39

Nothing is wrong with staying in the PNW, but the CA's I flew with while I was at QX who stayed there as a lifestyle choice, and are now QX-4-lifers were genererally the least happy. I could see one reason why; they watched their airline go down the tubes over the years. On the other hand, they've spent the majority of their career earning a barely liveable wage for the region. Once they finally got captain pay, they started to play financial catch-up. It's easy to say that all you need is to be a Q400 CA in your career, but say that after 15 years, and you're juggling a mortgage, 401k, student loans, 529 plan, etc. Especially when you could've gone someplace that is a stepping stone to the legacies, been at one in 4-5 years, and making 5 -10 year FO pay (which would likely exceed 15 year QX CA pay), based in SEA or SFO, working 12-15 days / month

Edit: I could see QX being a great place to land for young people (<35) who want to end up at AS. Or if you already have a stack of cash under your mattress and money is not an issue.

If you want a job to suit your lifestyle right now, forget the airlines. Become a cop, a firefighter, an accountant, etc. You have to build your life around this job for the first 5-10 years. If you accept this fact, you'll probably be better off (and happier) in the long run. JMHO