Originally Posted by brocklee9000

When I was a fairly junior regional FO, my relative seniority in base was awarding me trip with a mean of 15 yr captains. At the time, their pay rate was something like $115, maybe close to $120. I used to hear all the same things you mentioned and it made sense to me. Paying off the house, last kid at home is 16, seniority, whatever. Except…these very senior guys were barely clinging to a line, flying with a pretty new FO (me), doing pretty weak 4 days that started Friday and got home Monday. And it was 4 days of complaining, company this, trips that, work rules.

Quickly dawned on me that 15+ years as a captain in a CRJ, they were barely holding a line, working every weekend and holiday, 4 on 2 off, making year 2-3 FO pay at a big airline. And they seemed to hate their job and employer on top of it. It also quickly dawned on me not to ask too many questions, they probably had some skeletons or didn’t do interviews well. In a few years as FO they’d outearn and and have much better schedules. Huge part of what made me more interested in coming here and trying to be part of the growth. With new regionals pay it’ll take longer to eclipse what I made last year, but it’s contract season and I’m looking forward to whatever eventually comes.