Originally Posted by
Planegeek
This flow back to an aa wo seems backwards. The pay rate doesn’t justify it. As an ulcc fo your second year pay is that much higher than an aa w/o that’s it averages out to equal the same thing and then only goes up from there. Captain upgrades at an ulcc aren’t 10 yrs out. At most it’s just a couple years and you’ll make more than the regionals. The pay schedule really only applies to first year fos that are currently rated higher than only spirit at this point since frontier increased their pay to match envoy. It only really makes sense for retaining fos who go on to become captain rather than taking a more than 50% payout to go to an ulcc. The yearly increase schedule is better at ulcc so just because you might make the jump and make more for one year you’ll quickly be out paced by more seniority at an ulcc
I’m not saying it is worth it. See my post above, but your understanding of the pay at WOs isn’t quite complete. If you get hired at a WO with more than 750 hours of 121 flight time, you will be paid at the captain rate, and they are giving “years of service” credit. So if you have 800 hours and two years 121, you will be paid as a 3rd year captain… as an FO. You will also likely be able to upgrade soon after getting 950 hours, so if the actual PIC time is what you’re after it is a relatively quick and reasonably well paying way to get it, although your QOL will suffer immensely.