Originally Posted by FNGFO

Former junior NK CA now at AA….

The initial pay cut was a real kick in the teeth, but that’s not AA’s fault. Reserve is marginally better in my opinion. Rebidding raps every day kinda sucks, but proffering for trips in open time is kinda nice. The ability to change your schedule when holding a line is definitively worse. I’ve had zero issues with crusty old CA’s hating life. Most seem to be happy to have a partner who isn’t rehashing the foibles of the last 20 years all day and wallowing in that depressive mire. Most are as willing to have as much fun as you. I would say the flight attendants are a mixed bag. Some are great, and a lot seem used to butting heads with different employee groups and merger buddies.

The schedules are fine imo. Less red eyes than I did at NK. By a lot. I’m doing a fair amount of quasi regional flying because of the shortages. The standard 3 hour Spirit leg isn’t a thing here. Hotels are about even. Most of the planes are very…experienced. You’re kinda spoiled at NK with an extremely uniform and young fleet. There’s tons of support. You just have to find where it’s at. Airline food is airline food, but it does the job if you don’t want to haul supplies around for 4-6 days at a time.

I wasn’t looking to leave NK. The great displacement, a spouse unwilling to move and merger uncertainty made the risk of staying untenable. I still don’t know if I made the best decision. I don’t hate the move at all, and things will get better whenever a contract comes through, but I’ll need another 2-3 years before I know if pulling the eject handle at NK was the right call. Basically, would I have held my seat in my base after everything shakes out with B6 or not? Until then I’ll make the best of it and try to enjoy the opportunities before me. This will be a very different airline in many ways pretty shortly. I guess you could say the same about Spirit.