I think I can give you some guidance. I started at ExpressJet and got furloughed last summer. Since then I found a 135 charter company. At first I thought I struck gold as private jets are supposedly a step up from the regionals. However, the honeymoon is over and I have to say I long for my days back at XJT. Here are a few things to consider

-Pay: Most may think that nobody pays less than a regional, but that's not always true. Many of the captains at my company, flying things as big as G4s, are making $50-60k. They did it to get the type rating but now that the economy tanked the company is not giving them raises and they have nowhere else to go. The FOs here make $30-45k which is in line with some higher-end regionals like XJT and Horizon.

-Days off: You probably know that days off in the 91/135 world often just don't happen. I haven't had a "day off" in months. Its gotten quite common for the company to back date my days off to meet duty regs (illegal, but then again they invite the local FSDO to the hangar for parties a lot). In other words, I have no life outside the company. On call can be nice if you have everything you want within an hour from the airport but that's not always the case.

Airlines, even the ugliest, give you at least 11 days off. And by off, I mean, absolutely can not call you for duty. If you're dumb enough to pick up the phone and get junior manned, well you're just a dummy. At XJT I enjoyed 14 days off and hardly ever got days rolled, but even then I just added them to another block for even longer periods off.

-Travel: 91/135 does go to some neat destinations. But most of the time its the same old same old. At least the airlines you can go anywhere in the system on your time off. I took a leave of absence and got to tour Europe for a few weeks amongst other adventures. Not to mention my parents got to go on some once-in-a-lifetime trips and got big discounts through interline agreements.


So in conclusion, there's way more to regional life than meets the eye. And corporate life too. Its really what you're looking for in a job but definitely talk to some friends in those jobs to find out the full story. I know of lots of friends at my company that can't imagine doing anything else and even with my take on the airlines wouldn't trade places. Something for everyone in this world but I, for one, will take the 121 world over 91/135 any day.