To the OP. I'll give some perspective from the other side. I'm sure some lifers here will flame away. Thats fine.
After 2.5 years I recently left. There were many reasons, but a big one being - schedules sucked and overall QOL honestly wasn't that great. What good is "being home every night" when you bid using a system that doesn't honor seniority, arbitrarily denies a day off only to let you drop it after the award closes and schedules are final? There is zero reason (and save your breathe that "we aren't a traditional airline") this place can't have 3 on 3 off, or 4 on 3 off. I also don't think PBS will solve any of this. Speaking of...
The company is absolutely no where close to getting a legitimate PBS and the union, while we have guys working hard, some member have serious Stockholm Syndrome.
I have flown with a member of the Exco (great guy) but to hear him talk was pretty ridiculous. One would think after a decade of being here, that they would know the company is NOT going to "do the right thing".
I was hopeful for a strike, but its painfully clear that will absolutely never ever happen. It is basically our only leverage yet they will never have the balls to actually try and do it. Its amazing.
The flying got pretty mundane. I didn't particularly enjoy flying to the same 8-10 airports over and over and over again. Charters were awesome. I bid and did as many as I could and had a great time on those. Wish we could have a separate charter division to be honest.
Another major issue I had was the blatant disrespect shown here by Management. You know its bad when you come from a regional airline and dealt with almost zero BS, and you come here and its rampant. I mean the number of grievances filed is incredible. They violate basic black and white items. Also we can't forget the "we won in arbitration yet the company is STILL doing xyz...". I mean wtf?
Allegiant is fine for some, but for someone thats still young, I felt there is a better fit out there. Maybe if we were still hiring and growing I may have stuck around a bit longer, but I think one really has to be concerned about their outside ventures. A lot of risk vs reward. Also if they do end up successful, this just helps fuel their egos and I bet they really start to focus less and less on the airline and start building more and more of this crap.
Allegiant really could be a terrific place to be at, but I don't think that will ever happen until a certain individual leaves the company. Sadly, I don't see him doing that. I have zero respect for individuals like that and, thankfully, its a pilots market so I was able to "talk with my feet" or however the saying goes. As ECAM said (and you may hate him, but hes not wrong about this). Some people here deal with so much BS and justify it because "well I'm home everynight"...
Hopefully, PBS arrives, legitimate hiring and growth occurs for my friends still there.