Originally Posted by
sandrich
^^^everything robthree said is spot on. Matter of fact, he even warned me about these same issues when I came to Southern. I came from "flying RJs out of dumps like LGA and ORD." I had 18 days off a month with weekends and holidays, drove to work... But the pay just wasn't covering the bills. Came to Southern for the money (and the type, but mostly the money) and that's not even enough to compensate for all of the stuff we put up with. Not to mention the "money" isn't there anymore, now that half our lines dont even come close to breaking guarantee. You'd make the same, if not more money as a direct-entry captain at some other regional than at gauarantee here, plus you'd be home more. Unfortunately recruiters don't want to see guys "chasing the upgrade," so If you come here you WILL back yourself into a corner like I did. The only way out now is to wait on DAL/UAL etc to call, which could take longer than an Atlas merger (3+ years)...
Morale went down the tubes here end of last year. Once the Atlas news came out it was definitely a morale booster, albeit I was "cautiously optimistic." But now that Atlas is pulling all the strings and has showed their true colors, everything's down in the dumps again... The only way to make things better for guys that are here is for us to steer guys that want to come here away from this place.
Funny thing about trying to warn people; it's rare when anyone listens. People just have to figure it out on their own.
If I were in your shoes, I'd be applying to Blue, Spirit, Frontier... any and all of those places would be leaps and bounds better than the corner you've found yourself painted into. Besides the first year pay, anyways. But I've made more money on my second year pay here at Spirit than I did on my 4th year pay at Suddern.
I wouldn't sweat the recruiters. They know you're not chasing an upgrade, you're chasing not having a destroyed life. Suddern is a meat grinder. Get out any way you can; UAL will call you, but there's no sense in killing yourself in a tin can for 16 hour stretches waiting for the call.
Good luck. Rob and I will save a seat at Club XSA for you.