Originally Posted by
Jet Jockey 00
Piedmont
PSA
Endeavor/Envoy
You get higher hourly and 16-23k bonus. Fast upgrades and great travel and healthcare. Good luck trying to fly standby at a non Wholly owned. Major airline and their pilots and Mx and FAs and gazillion dependents all go in front of you last minute.
West coast bases are cool but leave them for when you get hired at a major. Upgrade times on West Coast bases are notoriously high. Don't get stuck as an FO watching the pretty girls on the beach just to realize years later you should have took the first upgrade. How can you live on the West coast with low FO PAY anyway is beyond me.
All regionals suck. The goal is to get out quick and get decent pay to support yourself and family while stuck in the quagmire.
Flying standby is not that difficult.
Not sure how American goes (which I heard is a stupid check in time) but I never had troubles as a ramp agent for DGS and that's bottom of the barrel priority. We were S4 on OO. United standby sucks but again not even bad.
Also, people flying their own metal will beat out WO anyways....
Standby travel always has it's ups and downs. Picking a regional based off that is a bit much....especially with other non-WO regionals will give you multiple benefits for different carriers making you bound to make one flight...