Originally Posted by
Special K
Hey everyone. I have been instructing for a while and I am approaching the time where I will most likely begin submitting applications to the regionals.
Just curious as to which companies, if any, allow pilots to keep their hotel rewards points. And also any differences between flight benefits at the regional airlines (ie positives and negatives).
When looking at the various carriers I am mostly concerned with the above two things and then also domiciles. I am in a situation where pay is not so much a concern since it sucks pretty much anywhere in this part of the industry.
As far as the hotel rewards, that is totally independent of the airline. Just depends on which hotel you stay at on any given night. Even at the same hotel some staff will do it for you and some won't. The problem is that the airline is already paying a very discounted price (one manager at one property told me they only make $3/room/night) so there is no incentive for them to also add on to that hotel rewards points.
You should be much more concerned about domiciles than flight bennies. Pretty much all regionals are the same, and pretty much all have crappy flight benefits. Flights will always be full, and as a regional partner your priority will many times fall below that of any mainline employees, including rampers and gate agents. Having said that, there will always be opportunities out there to travel, if you have the time off, so picking an airline simply because their travel benefits are marginally better than another's isn't a good move.
Pick your airline based on where you want to live or commute to. Look at their junior bases since that is where you will be stuck for some time. If you can stick it out there you may be able to gain some good quality of life/days off/better schedules since as the junior base most people try to leave. If you do want to end up in a base other than the junior one be prepared to take a bigger hit to days off, etc. as many people more senior to you will also be in that base.
If you can, try not to commute and live in domicile. It will save you money and many headaches trying to jumpseat on full flights with 10 other more senior pilots ahead of you.