Originally Posted by
pixelflying
Meals paid for is a huge factor. With regional level per diem if you spend all your per diem on food you still eat like cr*p. Also with paid meals you can order from wherever is convenient.
Our overnight hotels are better than the regionals. Also if you want you can get a rental car at your overnights and training which you will NEVER get at a regional.
There is no junior manning here. I mean in practicality there is because if they really need you they'll extend your rotation but they have to pay you overtime and believe me they avoid like heck doing that.
For people who live in the boonies the fact our schedule is 8/6 for those who chose is amazing. 8/6 means you only have to commute one way a week and no dealing with begging for a jumpseat home. 8/6 schedules are set a year in advance which works well for some people but not so much for others.
There's not a lot of sitting around. When you're at work you're doing work and when you're done you can leave the airport. No reserve and no sitting around no matter how junior you are.
People are going to the majors from here. People I've personally met have gone to JetBlue, Delta and a ton to Southwest. We suffer from a small sample size and everyone seems to be tunnel visioned on SWA. I wonder what would happen if more of us applied elsewhere.
To add to that, coming from someone who lives about 2 hours from my assigned base, you commute to and from work on days 1 and 8. No crash pads, traveling for work in days off etc. Occasionally, I don’t have to be at my base to catch an airline ride until mid morning, so I can still drop my kids off at school on my way to work. On the flip side, sometimes I have to be in base by 5:00 am to catch a 6:00 flight which means an early bed time and a 3am wake up the next morning. On go-home day I can sometimes catch an early flight out and be home before my wife and kids in the afternoon on day 8. It all just depends on the crew transitions and the schedule demands for that day. Once, I was lucky enough to get assigned to airplane that went AOG in base and so I got to sit at home for an extra day.