Originally Posted by PolishFlyerDude

I don't know what it is about our operation: the early AM's or the late PM's, the number of legs, the number of longer duty days and short overnights. Whatever it is, I find myself regularly exhausted after a three-day trip. I've been here more than a decade and it was relatively easy (except for the early AM's...that was never easy) for the first few years. Now, it seems much more difficult. Maybe it's because I'm in my 40's now and a little older.

However, I'm in very good shape, work out hard every day, and bring my own food. I'm not at all fat and out of shape so I don't think that's the problem.

To me, our days of flying have become markedly more difficult ever since 117 and the incorporation of the -800 into our fleet. 117 added n extra hour of block time to our days which gave the schedulers the ability to make our duty days even longer. The -800, with its much longer boarding/deboarding process increased our turn times and, correspondingly, our duty days. Longer duty days equals shorter overnights.

Plus, the AM's have gotten ever earlier and the PM's ever later. I look for trips with shorter duty days or fewer legs and longer overnights. They're not all that common. I'll take less pay for those kinds of trips over a little more pay for a more intense trip.

It usually takes me at least a day, sometimes more, to recover from a three day. So, when we're at work, in my opinion, we are getting the beat down. Yes, we deserve to be compensated for that. This job does a lot of damage to our health: circadian rhythm disruption, hard to get healthy food, sitting, radiation, noise, fumes. My opinion: we don't get paid nearly enough.