This is a great airline if you live in Florida, can comfortably live on $2000/mo, don't need more than one day off at a time and want to be an FO for 8-10 years.

 

I don't care for Allegiant, and have had a few JS who have awful things to say about them...

But honestly, if I lived in the Orlando area (or anywhere close to an Allegiant base) I'd consider them an option...

Being able to live near work, especially if you don't have to move to a base and can stay near family/friends is priceless.... I don't care for being home every night, rather enjoy overnighting, but having moved around the country I can say it sucks when it involves being away from parents, grandparents, friends and extended family.

 

If being home every night is the only reason for wanting to go to Allegiant, then you might want to think twice. There have been rumblings about that changing. I expect as Mexico and S. America and the the Caribbean open up, it will be a more traditional several day schedule.

It's funny how many of the new hires say the same thing, and before they are even out of new hire ground school they are already complaining about the same things the other pilots have been complaining about on here and other message boards. They always think their experience is going to be different, but it's not.

 

I think it is funny how pilots - obviously a traditional traveling job - often complain about the travel aspects of the job. It is like a heart surgeon complaining about blood. Sure there are pilot job that require very little traveling. They are the MINORITY. If you want to be a pilot - and especially an airline pilot - then you ought to know going into the job that you are going to be traveling. If you want to spend every night in home in your own bed - look elsewhere and fly for fun!

 

Very well said. G4 tries to sell the hell out this concept. To distract from the crap schedule practices, constant lack of staffing, running the airline like its going out of business, sub-standard pay, etc.

I am amused by pilots who pack nothing more than a lunch sack. This expectation creates a “get-home” itis mind set. Wonder how are maintenance write-ups look in comparison to more traditional airline schedules? Wonder if the faa has taken notice? I am sure they have, or will.

This is an unrealistic ideal at g4, given our maintenance and operational control, or lack thereof. If being in your own bed every night is that important, then you got into the wrong business.

 

I was talking about the pilot professional in very general terms of course, but did Allegiant schedule this way in the past that a pilot/crew could actually expect to be home most nights? Was it one of those rare flying (especially P121 flying jobs) where you could reasonably expect to only do day turns/trips or was that always a slight of hand scheduling practice that never quite panned out?

 

Allegiant has been nothing but out and back day trips in the 7 years I've been here.

Is it sustainable? I think the majority of the trips will continue like this, while some new stuff may have overnights similar to what the 757 guys see.

 

Anyone considering work at Allegiant should understand the hornet's nest they are walking into and the miserable conditions a reserve FO can expect. Training department has been shutdown, simulators are a mess, fleets have been grounded. Some of our August 2013 class trainees have still not been signed off. It's become a fly-by-night operation where trainees can easily get ground up and their careers shortened. When you hit the line, you can look forward to dealing with the inexperienced schedulers and dispatchers looking to get you violated. Operationally speaking, we are a disaster and at our lowest point in our 15 year history. I would wait until a contract is signed and see if things improve. Even then I'm not sure how much better it will get because management seems he11 bent on being at war with its employees. Conditions won't improve until changes take place at the top. Management is doing pretty much whatever they want with work rules and schedules and the accountants are running the company as if it was bankrupt. Sad part is that Allegiant used to be a great company with incredible potential. New management came in, got ambitious and greedy and went after every possible dime they could save. Pilots are a big ticket and bullseye for accountants, especially when they have no experience in the industry.

There are much better alternatives out there. I would wait for an airline that was run by people who know what they are doing instead of a travel company run by a pack of venture capitalists.

 

How often are people TDY'ed away from a home base and then fly the out and backs? No overnights - but not at home. Is that a norm or soething that we have only recently heard about on these boards?

 

I think you make a good point. Staying in hotels has always been kind of a fun adventure for me since my family couldn't afford them when I was growing up. On the flip-side however, is the way schedules have changed and worsened. For those of us who have been in the business long enough, expecting 15+ days off a month was the standard for making up for time away from home. Unfortunately having say 12 off or less wears on a person over the years. You start to see the benefits normal people have with weekends and holidays off, compounded by the realization that you don't have many more days off than them - it's a tough reality.