Like someone else above, I came to the 717 from 330 (displaced) and wasn't sure I was going to like it, I just knew I wanted to be senior, but I like it way more than I'd ever have imagined. However, that is highly predicated on the fact that I'm local, have a very flexible schedule and still can manipulate my schedule quite a bit. This means I can make much more and spend more time at home than I did on the 330. So take my viewpoint with that in mind.

As far as the trips, they're all pretty meh. Nothing is really that great, but plenty is crap. With a little seniority, you can fly 3-2-3 three-day trips vs the 3-4-3 trips. 30 hours are far fewer with is good or bad, depending on your likes. For DTW, they keep saying planes are coming back online, but they keep only posting 717A's in ATL, so we're short staffed and getting worse. To me, the ATL bid packet is much worse than DTW. I much prefer the small city layovers and I'm good if I never go back to NYC, LAX, etc... I'm the opposite of Trip, the fact that I CAN'T be in SJU one day and ANC the next, is what keeps me on the plane. If diversity of flying is something you need, then this isn't the place imho. I actually find this a pro, I love going into the same places, and getting vectors to an ILS final...it makes the flying just that much easier. Very few gotchas in our flying, you'll be dialing in departure freqs off memory. But honestly, I could fly the same turn for the rest of my life and I'd be ok with that. This job is to make me money and be home more, it's not a travel plan. I get my aviation enjoyment by flying outside of the airlines.


My personal likes: Short legs, generally easy flying, small airports, quick rides to hotels, small town layover, never more than one time zone away, no redeyes, mostly no night flying (unless it's an early departure lol), generally speaking no really long days (for me anyway), no JFK or LGA, never leave the country. We rarely swap body clocks, so you can be an AM flyer or a PM flyer (huge plus for me). Another pro is that everyone here mostly wants to be here, so the crews are generally more fun than any other fleet I've been on here, in DTW anyway...


Dislikes: Cockpit isn't as comfortable as a bus (but better than the 737 imo), winter de-ice fluid inside the cockpit, flying through ATL and their ridiculous wheels up times and constant plane swaps, 4 leg days unless it's short legs like DTW-GRR/TVC, very few trips ever break 5+25 ADG, as mentioned below we were left behind on banding and 1 and 2-day trip protections.


If there is one thing I've learned, it's that being junior on anything pretty much sucks. Get into the top 40% of a seat and you can all but ensure any day off. Get in the top 33% and life is dang good. Top 10% is a killer QOL and worth a lot of money. A buddy is top 10% 717B and many months he beats my pay while still getting all the days off he needs. Most of the FO's I fly with are upgrading to the 737/320 because they'll actually be more senior on those as compared to the 717.






Lol exactly! September is the worst bid packet to date (enter Homer Simpson meme here). Never mind that the one month they put out lucrative 1 days, you had to be in the top 10% to even get close to them and the rest of the bid packet was it's normal self. My guess is they never actually ran some examples of what the bid packet would look like. If they did, they either didn't have a 717 pilot look it over, or it was an ATL commuter lol. But hey, at least they didn't get us banded up with the 220.