Originally Posted by
FlyAway88
Rick, does the top tier majors include cargo flights like FedEx or corporate, or passenger airlines considered top tier? I'll start working on my degree sooner than later then since you point out how competitive it is to get to where I want to be. I have a lot of flexibility and good income coming in from my hospital job so I'm thinking of going to a part 61 school, flying 2-3 times a week while working part time and keeping my expenses down to a minimum. I can start taking some online classes too while I'm doing that so that I have it even before I reach the regionals. Thanks for all of your advice.
FA
Top tier (aka big six) is conventionally considered to be AA, DL, UA, SWA, FDX, UPS
Second vs. third tier majors is a blurry line. Safe I think to say that AS, HA, JB are second tier, Sunny and F9 are third tier. Anything else is subject to (likely violent) debate. Some might even argue that SW is second tier these days since they don't have widebodies ($) and don't have as many retirements as the others. The tier rankings in this context are NOT about the quality of the company, but rather the quality of the opportunity for a pilot hired TODAY (vice 30 years ago).
Corporate is whole different world. there are a very few great opportunities in corporate (known as "unicorns"), but for the most part corporate pilots will enjoy less money and QOL than (major) airline pilots. In many cases they still have plenty of money and QOL, so it's not necessarily a horrible place to be. Although on of the downsides is stability, job security is lower in corporate. IMO airlines are better opportunity right now, and it doesn't take a statistics Phd to do the math on the near/mid-term retirements.