100% honestly, short term it's been more work for about the same pay (post-contract at spirit). Medium term, I've had some personal "issues" that the company helped me with, and I appreciate that. Long term, it's a company with a proven track record that is expected to continue, and that feels more secure than my time at Spirit did. Plus profit sharing, plus my boss didn't sue me for an imagined work slowdown.

I think the trust factor is the biggest difference. I'm not naive enough to imagine our upcoming contract negotiations will be peaches and cream, but I do have confidence that my boss won't put the company at risk just to stretch the old contract out one or two extra months. Riots at the gate? I just don't think I'll have to live through that again and that's worth the extra effort for me personally.

I still can't say enough good things about the pilots I flew with at Spirit. They taught me the job and with very few exceptions I enjoyed flying with almost everyone I shared the cockpit with. Spirit is known as being commuter friendly, and that is a direct result of the quality of their pilot group. That's something a contract can't get you, it has to come from the inside the pilot group itself. My choice to jump ship was nearly 100% based on management and company leadership culture, and I "won the lottery" to end up with a company with another awesome pilot group and a management team that doesn't treat me like crap.

I've said it before... A Spirit pilot with 4 or more years on the seniority list may be best off remaining at Spirit, at least financially. The career pay is very level (at the narrowbody tier) now compared to all the other majors and the possibility of a 5 year upgrade makes up for a lot, in terms of QOL and pay. Plus Spirit's business model is printing money and there's no sign that things will change anytime soon.

That's why I read the investor slides... I finished my USAF career with a deep distrust of the senior leadership in my organization. I've been there, done that, and I don't want to be in that position again. I gave up a ton of of short-term pay to get to my last ever job in the airline industry, with my decisions strongly biased by my last few year's experience in the USAF not trusting anyone higher than my wing commander for the last 8 or so years of my career. That sucked and I don't want to do that again.
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