Originally Posted by
scooter trash
Hi. 25 year UA guy, preceded by 2 years at DHL. Either way, finish 20 in the mil. As I'm crunching the retirement numbers, healthcare costs are a significant hurdle, and I'm envious of the guys with the tricare deal. That said, I do maybe 3-4 redeyes a month. Night hub turns at a cargo carrier ain't that. Two years of the nightly freight thing made me at least 10 years older. Our big changeover at DHL was Monday night/Tuesday morning, and when you walked into the ready room you could tell by looking at them who was on day one and who was on day seven. If you're not at an airline now you probably can't jumpseat, but if you can I HIGHLY encourage you to jumpseat into SDF, sit through the sort, and jumpseat out. If you really want to taste the sweet nectar of night freight, do it for a week. Those guys aren't making bank because Mama Brown loves them (she doesn't, but that's beyond the scope here.)
Jumpseating into, sitting the sort, then jumpseating out is an apples to truck tires comparison. Sitting in some jumpseat lounge is going to be fatiguing and no where near the experience and operating crew would have. I can't speak for Brown, but at Purple, we have sleep rooms and a fantastic wakeup call program. It really, really helps with the night hub turns.
Having said that, that's only part of the flying at both carriers. There's so much more to it!