You may love it during IOE, but once the kool aid is out of your system...well....

This thread is rife with company men. The truth, I'm on 5th year pay and make about as much as a PSA Captain on his 1st year after soft time (I'm at 61k/yr) and other regionals are comparable (if not better) as well. There is no soft time at OAI. If you feel like working more than 18 days straight in the month you might get called for extra flying, you might not. There is no system for trip trading, open time, etc.. That sort of thing doesn't exist here. There is no trip rig or minimum day pay. Breaking guarantee from your regular 18 days away from home is a rare occasion (it happened twice for me in the last 5 years).

You'll get about 30hrs (on average) of actually being in a seat every month. Depending on who is more desperate for landings, because someone always is, you may spend more of that 30hrs in the jumpseat as a relief pilot. If you get the 777 and not the 767 it's worse....a brief example, I just talked to a very senior 777 CA and he has had 10 landings since January....10. That speaks for itself.

Homelife is difficult, you will be tired and destroyed when you finally get home and you'll make less money than you do now assuming you're coming from the RJ CA position you mentioned. This job is best for old men who hate their wives (not exaggerating here) and single guys that are apathetic about everything like hotels with no air-conditioning and have no problem getting stuck here since you'll have no currency to apply somewhere else with.

If you want to fly big jets, keep your applications up to date at the majors, RJ captains ARE finally getting hired, be patient. Shiny Jet Syndrome is no reason to throw a wrench in your career progression.

If you want to see the world, use some of those travel privilages you have now, because if you come here you will have none at all (except for CASS Jumpseat). You can't even bring your spouse on our own flights (like our regularly scheduled LAS-HNL service). Of course, if you're on the 777 you'll get so many frequent flier miles from the continuous deadheading you can probably get a real ticket for you and one other after a year or so.

I'd be happy to send a copy of our CBA to you. It's a short easy read since there is nothing in it to protect us from anything.

These are the facts. If you want my personal opinion on things or the story of how I ended up here you can PM me directly and I'm open to sharing.

TL;DR Would not recommend for anyone under 60, or anyone over that loves their family/having a life outside of work (unless you're a Syrian refugee and it's the only job you can get).