Originally Posted by
Skydriver02
I am looking at the same situation, only everything on a smaller scale. Everything seems to be as the original question, except I am early in my career at 33 years old. Over 5,000 TT working on degree. I fly corporate/captain and make NBAA wages on a "under 20k" jet. Recently, I have been offered interviews at NetJets and Spirit, but my boss is incentivizing to stay by hiring another PIC and awarding hard days off to pilots. It's not bad QOL and am only gone 9 nights a month on average. With another PIC I'll get days off when needed. I'd love to hear from the guys that jumped from 91 to 121.
Goals are simply best QOL and fair pay. In the long run I don't want to work 20 days a month as household income is no problem. Suggestions?
I went from CP of a NBAA Jet II department to a major cargo airline a few years ago while in my early 30s. I loved my corporate job - airplane wasn't the biggest and pay wasn't the highest, but my boss was great and my QOL was exceptional. I worked about 14-15 days per month, of which maybe 10-12 were flying and the remainder were 2-3 hour "days" at the office doing paperwork and/or the hangar doing database updates. Rarely flew weekends (maybe 10 total weekend days per year), every holiday off, family was welcome to come along on trips if seats were open.
I had the opportunity to take an airline job that happened to be in the same geographic area I was already living/working, and it was an absolute no-brainer from a long-term security and compensation perspective. QOL-wise, I knew I was going to be junior for a while and being junior means working crappy schedules...but I ended up becoming a "professional reserve" and generally working 10ish days per month. Sure I was on call, but that was pretty normal as a former corporate guy and I was at home vs. a crashpad. I have not worked a major holiday - been home Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and been home almost every Valentines Day and birthday. Now I generally bid out-and-back trips; report around 2-3am, fly two or three legs, duty off 1030-1130am and do 12 of those a month (Tues-Thurs every week, or Tues-Fri three of four weeks). Home every day with weekends off.
I can't speak for Spirit or NJA, but living in domicile has afforded me an even better QOL than I had flying corporate - thankfully no more late-night or short-notice phone calls from the boss and the ability to easily make more money if I want by picking up open time. I don't accumulate hotel stays/points, and rental cars are on my dime, but having hard days off in advance and not having to stress about a broken plane and how to accomplish the mission has been nice.
IMO, early 30s, making the leap from 99% of small-cabin operations to a legacy or major cargo carrier is a no-brainer; a fractional or ULCC may require exploring the value proposition a bit closer and I'd put heavy emphasis on location if QOL is a driver - commuting sucks.