I spend about 4K a year on healthcare at my airline. On year 2 FO salary I’ll get 18,000 dollars put into my 401k before I put in a dime (15%). That is on top of making 30k this year than I will have made at NJA if I stayed. The healthcare gets argued like it’s worth 20k a year, it’s simply not. And the 401k, NJA isn’t even in the same universe as the airlines, it’s unfair to even compare.

Vacations are a subjective thing I guess. The super senior guys get lots of vacation but the staggering contrast in QOL compared to the airline doesn’t make staying at NJA worth it for me personally. Also with how flexible my schedule is now, I can get the same amount of time off as I did as a year 3 FO at NJA, but for sure the senior NJA guys get a bigger block of time off. However I will average an entire month off more at my airline at the end of the year because I work 2-3 days less per month.

That’s at the 5th best airline 🤣