If you have the option of getting a job offer in multiple places, I think your best bet is choosing an airline with a big domicile in an inexpensive place to live. Ideally a junior one at that. Simply being senior will give you far more control and flexibility than any one airline’s contract… Especially when you are talking about pay and quality of life at a Legacy versus ULCC.

aside from the first year or two on the 757 at FedEx, I would have to believe that the ratio of pay to time at home would be highest as a FedEx guy living in Memphis… But being junior at FedEx is about one of the hardest “dues” one would have to pay in the industry (cue the fedex “it’s not that bad”.)

basically, being able to live off FO salary in a junior base (and driving to work) is about the best control and flexibility in person can have in this business. A couple years of seniority should enable you to work three days a week, and if you live in base, that can be three 1 day trips (or a 2-day and a 1-day).

Personally I spent a couple years doing Transcon two days on the 757 at united. Left the house at 4 pm and was home by 8 the next night. Six of those trips a month (at 12.5 hours apiece) meant I was off 18 days a month and essentially home 24 days a month with my family