Regionalsuck

What is the average days off at AA on narrow body fleets currently? It appears from talking to others elsewhere that it is quite a bit lower than DAL, UAL and SWA, and trending in the wrong direction over the past years. With worse QOL to boot.

Trying to decide on flowing "this year" to AA or taking a job with SWA. Live in DFW. Sick and tired of the AAG management culture after working with them for for so long at Eagle.

I honestly don't care about the more money potential at AA vs SWA, spouse makes way more than I could ever even dream of making as a 777 CA. What I care about is QOL and being home more (not living in hotels and wasting away for 4 days at a time). Prefer short trips, Day trips, 2 day trips or even 3 days are ok. I hate 4 day trips with a passion. Currently intentionally bid Reserve as a CA over any line just to be home 22-25 nights a month. Understand that I would be stuck with 4 day trips again at AA for a while but if it will be for years and years, with mostly only 4 day trips available like what happened at Envoy, then no thanks. I'll go do something else.

SWA seems to do mostly 3 day trips with many more days off and much more effecient with your time at work . Even RSV there is 15 days off! Line holders seem to have between 16-19 off regularly. Can you even get that at AA anymore without being ultra senior?

The lure of wide-body reserve at AA seems like a decent possibility one day, hopefully being home a lot. I have no real desire to ever upgrade again even with 30 years left. Not interested in being the old man in the crashpad being junior all over again on reserve and stuck in commuting hell, wasting away life at that age. I'd rather be an ultra senior FO one day and get good schedules at these FO pay rates.

Movement at AA will obviously be better, but if the schedules are crappy then SWA may still be a better option "for me personally". DAL and not commuting will probably happen WAY quicker at SWA as well.

mainlineAF

Sounds like no matter what happens if you go to AA you'll be jaded and unhappy.

Reread your post. You said all negative things about AA and positive things about SWA. You've already made your decision.

Go to SWA.

Saabs

If we get min calendar day it will change soon.

But in the past if I didn't want to fly redeyes I had no problem getting 15-17 days off a month. I would often fly redeyes or slash trips to hold weekends off however. I would say on average swa gets more days off than narrowbody guys here but as always the senior guys here have no issue getting 21 days off a month doing turns.

Widebody schedules with some seniority are usually better than narrowbody

Regionalsuck

Probably because I am jaded towards AA. After being treated like crap at Eagle for many years it's hard to just let that go and think things will be rosy with the same people running the show on that side of things. I certainly "hope" things are better on the AA side, many of the flows have said it is better, but the more I read/hear lately, it sounds like more of the same trends towards less days off and crappy schedules on that side of the fence, (just higher pay rates). The reason I ask is nobody talks much about good schedules at AA on here like all the other Majors do. So I am wondering if there isn't many?

I honestly don't know about SWA, it seems they are treated MUCH better from talking to people and countless jumpseat rides/riders, but I have never worked for them so I don't know firsthand.

Regionalsuck

Thank you, that is the type of info I am looking for.

I thought this decision would be easy, just stay with AA, but the more I talk to SWA guys and with their new contract, it has gotten harder. If someone is looking strictly for compensation, then AA is the no brainer probably for long term, but for a better QOL seeking person, it's a harder choice. Still leaning towards AA just because of the retirements and more options though.

mainlineAF

I wasn't trying to not be helpful. Your tone just made it sound like AA was going to be terrible for you.

There's too many variables in fleets to say how many days off you'll get. Count on 5:10 a day pay to get to the PBS line construction window of 75ish-85ish.

badflaps

If you have to worry about days off, I'm not sure aviation is the place to hang your hat.

Regionalsuck

I know, I was being jaded. This company will do that to a guy. Lol

No worries.

Regionalsuck

I would think everyone would care about days off. If your competitor gets 3-5 more days off a month for the same amount of hours, that is kind of a big deal. It's an extra day off every week.

I don't mind flying, I just want more options to be home in my own bed as much as possible and not miss out on everything by being in a LaQuinta near the freeway. This is why I prefer day trips or 2-3 day trips. Gone from home only 2 nights a week. Still see your family nearly every day.

Regionalsuck

What are the average percentages of DFW narrow body trips? Rough estimate?

For example:

50% 4 day
15% 3 day
25% 2 day
10% 1 day

At Eagle it use to be similar to that, now that we changed to Envoy, it is 99% 4 day trips only. So there is nothing desirable for the locals. This is what I don't want. Hoping AA is committed to a lot more variety for QOL purposes.