Originally Posted by forgot to bid

I'm regional Part 121 -> Part 135 -> Part 91/135 -> Major Part 121.

First question: Think of the major you'd like to go to- would you end up commuting on purpose for a long time? If that's the plan, you'll be miserable.

Second question: How much of a heads up would you get if your current job was going away? If someone walked in and said the boss is getting a divorce, would you need to be concerned? Or rumors that every part of the company is cutting costs by 30% across the board no questions asked and oh there is a rumor the company might merge or be bought out, would that concern you? If those concern you, majors aren't too bad at all.

Final question: If you lost your job, how easy could you find another where you currently are? Or can you think of a place that would hire you even if they didn't have an opening? If the answer is no about any of that, well we're hiring soon-ish.



Here's what I saw firsthand. RJ world sucked. Training and flight ops wasn't necessarily bad but the pay was bad mostly because upgrades were slow. The pay was more heavily weighted towards Captains. Anyways, add in commuting, RJ work rules, uncommutable trips, blah blah I quit.

The second go around in 121 world was after being the pilot, chief pilot, maintenance coordinator, charter sales guy (not officially of course), punching bag, building manager, fueler, ramper, etc. The second go around has been nothing but bi winning awesomeness because:

• Now, I no longer have to ask for holidays off,
• I didn't have to have a type to apply (that's not a shot at SWA though, the only reason I got my Part 135/91 job is because I was already typed and when I tried to hire for the job the boss' basic requirement was that he didn't have to pay for a type and they needed to have had their Part 135 line check in the last 12 months? I can't remember the rule),
• I no longer have to ask off for any day in advance and listen to someone balk at the request and say "look at all of the days you didn't fly last month"...
• I can make plans in advance with certainty for the following month around the 15th of this month,
• Even with my current seniority even around 80% on the 88 in ATL, I can make plans in advance with certainty for any month and know I'll get what I want but I might bid reserve to get it,
• My absence no longer means an airplane is grounded,
• It's okay to be sick.
• It's okay to attend a family members funeral with pay and no airplane is grounded,
• I write something up and I leave and am no longer on the phone into the wee hours of the morning because an important charter is at 9am the next morning and I need a tire. OR, the tire went low sitting in the hangar (thanks Goodyear, great stuff) and it's thanksgiving day and the airplane is booked for lucrative part 135 charters for the next 5 days) and I can't find someone to put the tire on nor convince someone to ship it counter-to-counter. Like I said, I leave.
• I schmooze the customers if and when I want,
• Someone fuels the airplane, without me saying a word. Usually before I get there. I don't have to come in early to get it fueled. I just show up, see what they gave me and go, and if turns out not to be enough, I divert before it's a problem. And fill up and go again.
• I don't have to order catering and teach the contract FA where everything is and pray she doesn't spill red something or other on the expensive carpet like the last FA did,
• If we're going to go out of business I'll have a big warning and it'd take years to get there,
• My airplanes are used heavily on the holidays just like they were before, but I don't have to stay wherever the customers are going for their holiday. I can drop them off and go home. Every leg is a drop off in that sense.
• Long layovers are 32 hours. Sometimes 48 but that's on the international side.
• If I buy a vaccum, it's for my house and not an airplane and nobody is going to call me and ask why I bought it since I bought a $45 one two years ago.
• My wife never questions whether we needed a rental car, which is the only time I ever rent one.
• They put 15% into my 401k, without me doing anything.
• If I come in on a day off, 2x pay which puts a day trip around 10 hours of pay, a 2 day at 20, and so on - at a minimum. If I'm on reserve and say being paid 78 hours for the month, whatever hours I flew on my day off are on top of the 78 and I get those days back immediately. So if I took up overtime flying on the first days of the month and had those off I'd get those hours paid above guarantee and the days off back which I could then go out and fly overtime on again and so on and by the time it's said and done the lucky guy who pulls that off made 140 hours to 200 hours on 70-80 hours of flying.
• If the boss gets a divorce, I don't care, I won't even know.
• Tax write off? I'm good, I have lots of them... oh MACRS? Yeah, I don't care any more. Nor do I care about A008. And nobody here knows what the heck an 8130 form is.
• You know how many people call me on Saturday morning at 9am to run over the numbers on how the jet is doing? ZERO.
• Sure I work for the same company but if you moved around airplanes or bases it's like working at different companies. So you get a change of pace.
• If the boss' nephew becomes a pilot, I don't care. It doesn't mean I'll have to fly with him as soon as he passes his commercial.
• If the guy you're flying with sucks, just know you won't see him after your 2-day, 3-day or 4-day trip ends (international is 6, 9 and occasionally 12 days). Then put him on your no-fly list.
• I don't have to call the maintenance shop and lie that the check is in the mail when it isn't because the boss doesn't pay up on time.
• When you refer to something as a wide-body, you mean Boeing 767 or larger, not Canadair Challengers.
• 2 weeks of vacation becomes 3 and then 4 and then 5 in a decent amount of time.
• Did I mention I have days off in advance? On reserve its 12 days wherever your seniority allows you to have them. Flying a line is generally around 14-18 off. I've seen in the 20s before. If you're in need of cash, you can fly more.

In the next 4-5 years I move up to around 85th percentile of the seniority list, 5 years after that I'm around 50%. For a little background, I was hired almost 6 years ago, for the first few months I commuted at Delta to JFK flying the 767 internationally, it was an easy commute. Then I flew it out of Atlanta where I lived, even easier commute I only had to do once a month. I displaced to the 88 and now 88/90 and while I could've jumped to other airplanes I went for QOL (weekends off, got holidays and christmas off). Now to the 717 to get more senior.

Now for all of that and flying the bottom rung airplane group as an FO mostly on reserve (intentionally) and flying about 500 hours a year, I've grossed $72K in the first 7 months of this year and I guess you could say on pace for $120K in gross earnings for the year. Next year 7th year pay on the 717 I'll be around the same place I was this year because it's a slight paycut. And mind you, that's the bottom paying plane, most of the time the lowest number of hours paid for the month and no overtime. I go up one airplane and it's a huge difference in pay upwards. And that's before we talk SWA pay.

So, I aim to be home and I am. I wouldn't go back to corporate unless they paid me upfront what DAL would pay me as a 73 CA for the next 30 years plus 15% and I was assured all weekends and holidays off and... I can tell you're laughing.

But you get the point, I've been in and out of 121 and in and out of 91/135. It's just what I saw. A well run flight department at a good company is a great deal but of course I saw that with BellSouth's flight department here in ATL and they no longer exist. It's nice not to tell the family I'm going to TEB tomorrow and will be back the next day and then call back and said the boss wants you to take the G550 to Turkey (not naming names here ) and I'll be back in 2 weeks. If you're going to commute by choice for 2-3 decades, you'll hate this job pretty quickly. If you bid because the size of the jet is what matters and you bid it as soon as you can then don't complain too much about not being home on weekends and holidays. Besides, chances are you'll burn more gas on one leg with the small jet at the major than the corporate jet you're flying weighed at MTOW... you have no excuse on chasing big jets because of the ego.

The majors, at least mine, is a really great job and I am thankful I have it and that comes from someone who studied every May and August issue of B/CA because I loved loved corporate airplanes. I thought it's what I wanted for a career, but now, I'm just thrilled I got to come here and so is my wife and my kids.

Hope it helps shed some light on the subject.