Originally Posted by ValuGiant

As other people said, upgrade is so short because of QOL. It's horrible if you're anywhere close to the bottom of the list in certain bases. Even if you live in base you can get a phone call for a 3 week TDY reserve assignment sending you across the country without the opportunity to come home. On top of this, when you're inconvenienced with getting TDY'd involuntarily, you'll be at the mercy of the travel department if you get a rental car and a descent hotel. Per diem is $1/hr. Good luck living off of $24/day without being able to cook your own meals. On top of this, when you have a concern about the lack of a rental car or quality of hotel you are labeled as a complainer and there has been instances where a certain BCP has taken away rental cars from crew members for complaining.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and doesn't even start with how disfunctional the operation is and the responsibility of keeping it all together falls on the shoulders of the captain. When something is missed (no matter how good you are, even the sharpest of pilots make mistakes) you will be called into LAS to have a "debrief."

This is why upgrade is short. Good luck if that is what you want. If you're planning on moving on from G4 after you get your TPIC time, be very weary. There are a lot of ways that G4 can add a blemish to your record that will prevent you from leaving to a legacy.