Like I said I've been here 3 years hired into the widebody FO position and I can only share my first hand experience ymmv.
My experience couldn't be more different than what Purpletoolbox has stated.
One can easily make north of 250k/yr at 2nd year pay in the right seat of a widebody, fly less than 300 hours in a year gain the top invite only elite status on several airlines with 100's of thousands of FF miles, rarely fly at night, stay in five star hotels, and rarely ever fly more than one leg.
I'm not on the 777 and don't really care to be on it. The 11 has the best bonus level flying in the System period full stop. Anybody who wants to have a debate about it take a look at the schedules of those who know guys who know and I'll be happy to engage. As a matter of fact I've not seen much else anywhere else that can touch it.
Its all about perspective. My perspective is from a guy who's been here a short time but has great seniority in my seat.
There are several bases where reserve goes senior and VTOs are the most junior.
I have colleagues that are 777 FOs based in MEM on reserve and they can go months without flying. They live in the base and it would take a stick of dynamite to get them out of there. Living in base makes all that complaining about reserve a moot issue.
Where purpletoolbox and I are completely aligned is the contract, work rules, and the union. We have one of the most broken self serving and divided pilot workforces I have ever seen anywhere and it is the root causality of the weaknesses in the contracts. I'm optimistic that this will change with the addition of a large dose of new blood who understand that all of our interests are aligned and we should seek positive outcomes for everyone.
He's also right that the union doesn't provide any support in navigating or understanding the system. It is something that should certainly change especially with the flood of newhires.
As well substitution is an just asinine. Rube Goldberg couldn't have designed a more ridiculous flow chart to decide if what to do if a trip cancels
All that said we should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
If money is your motivation LIVE IN MEMPHIS.
If having the best scheduling options is important LIVE IN MEMPHIS. If upgrading early is important LIVE IN MEMPHIS.
Living in your base makes this an entirely different job. An arguably much much better job.
The pay rates are what they are, but there's lots of soft money opportunities to mine! If you are willing to educate yourself and exploit them.
Every company has things to complain about, but I have zero regrets about this being my 1st choice.