I'll say a couple of things here, even though I have never worked for a 121 carrier. After 20 yrs in the Air Force, I got my 737 type, interviewed with SWA, but didn't get a job offer. After getting picked up by NetJets, I could have easily gotten another interview after 1 year and probably gotten picked up, but the thought never seriously entered my mind after starting work here. I also declined the AirTran interview I had lined up after I got the offer from NJA.
Quality of life and quality of flying were big factors for me. If you spend about a quarter to a third of your life on duty, you had better enjoy what you're doing. The seven days on can be a grind, but like someone said before, you usually only see 5-6 days of real work out of that because of airlining on both ends. I tried the reserve schedule for awhile, but my wife hated it because with three school-aged kids, she has to be able to plan ahead to stay on top of everything. It was just too hard to know when I was going to be home except for the four hard days off.
I personally love the seven says off I now have. I don't spend my whole off time recouping from the last trip and getting ready for the next one. I actually have time to take the family out of town for a few days when the kids are off from school, start
and finish projects around the house, etc. If the new proposal goes through, I can see where the new, biddable 18-day schedule could be better for us than either of the current schedules, and it pays a bunch more too.
Personally, the variety and quality of the flying is what keeps me here over the lure of pay at SWA or one of the cargo companies. On a given day, I have flown out of LAX and landed at an tiny, uncontrolled field where the local guy wants to know if his kid can see your airplane because they don't get jets in there very often. I love flying the Citation X. It is a dream jet to fly and I'll really miss it if I have to leave it to upgrade to captain earlier. And except for some of the older captains who came from a 121 background, most of the captains pitch in and help with all the pre- and post-flight duties equally. My SWA buds are shocked when I tell them that. I enjoy the people I fly with and the owners I fly. At least once a tour on average, I get to meet and talk with someone I would have never imagined meeting a couple of years ago.
The FO pay has been tough, but I think it's going to get better really soon. Not much to complain about here, not even for a middle-aged career pilot.
-NTFB