Originally Posted by
Qotsaautopilot
If you had a min 16 days off per month like southwest you would usually have 4 days off between pairings anyway and if you didn't one week you'd probably have 6-10 days off the next.
Yeah, That works too..
I also wouldn't want AAs new contract but I'd say talk to an AA pilot around your relative seniority and really compare how their qol is. I'd bet it's not much better or worse than yours. Is that worth $100k more a year to you along with a 16% retirement contribution?
I do know many guys at AA that have flowed through. None of them are getting close to averaging 16-19 days off a month ever, not even close. Not until they are very senior and it's still rare. Days off are more important to me personally.
Money is useless If you have no life and are a slave to the airline (IMO). After you are making a comfortable amount of course.
If I had the choice of 150K/yr and 18-19 days off VS 220K/yr and 12-13 days off I would take the 150K every time.. so I could actually enjoy life. But that's just me. Of course the group is worth more than that, just using it as a rough example. I know some people on the other side would do anything for max pay because they have no home life.
I suppose on the other hand if the rates are high enough and you can "actually" drop stuff.. It works out the same. I just have bad experiences with drops being denied to staffing every month. So I would never trust that.
I have just never seen any other carriers where even a junior pilot can regularly get as many days off as a Spirit pilot does. That is HUGE. Southwest would be similar I guess but they are in major stagnation mode for the forseeable future.