Varsity

I think you're asking 2 separate questions.

Q1: Is it worth it to be an airline pilot with a late start?

Answer: Do you like flying? Can you make ends meet?

Q2: Is it worth it to be abused at Eagle with a late start?

Answer: Probably not. People at Eagle get tunnel vision for AA and the company loves it. I'd recommend going somewhere else and seeing what the rest of the industry looks like.

Thrust Hold

You won't find a guy/gal on here that didn't have their personal progression timeline thrown off by this industry (9-11, Age 65, Recession and Mortgage Crisis, Furlough, or Airline Bankruptcy). The folks that persevere reap the rewards.

Phil Laschio

Getting kicked in the giblets from time to time is the job. Started flying at 19, CFI at 21, freight, corporate, regionals, fracs, Flightsafety Instructor. Just turned 50 and in 31 years of flying I’ve never worked for a company more than 7 years. Bankruptcy, furlough, position eliminated, etc. Currently a CA at B6. If my trend continues I expect B6 to liquidate next year. That’s a joke. But not really. That being said, 8 hours a day of updating PowerPoint presentations at FlightSafety makes a 4 leg day of JFK BUF a dream gig.

HulkaBurger

All the commute hassles. The constant *****ing on the flight deck about the company, the union, the current political state, the other pilots, and on and on. Living out of a suitcase and missing important milestones. Having to deal with scheduling, maintenance, dispatch, FAs, ****ed off and unruly passengers, irregular ops, etc.

Yeah. "Loving to fly" makes up for all that.

Keep telling yourself that. 🤣🤡

bababouey

Cool, circle back to me after your 13th lunch at chipotle this month with Karen from accounting. I literally never see my boss, I only have to deal with one a-hole at a time, and I get 15 days off a month. That's fine by me. And yes, at most jobs you will never deal with any kind of obstacles like you do at your airline.

Most jobs will not match the time off we get, with the wages we make. We don't have to bring our work home with us, ask your high earning friends and neighbors how many emails and phone calls they get on their days off. If you don't like it, take a hike, oh yeah, you have no real skills on the outside so you won't.

Battlinbear

I hope you stick it out and things do workout for you and the family. I’m sorry to see what’s happening to everyone top to bottom, and the goal is NO one loses their jobs. Too many casualties already from TSA/CZ.
I just wanted to say, there is great QOL to be had and pay at certain regionals. I was fortunate to get into trn for a company w a very mature cba for mgt pilots. I’ve been at AA 3 years and haven’t made near what I did my last 3 years at my regional. I live in base, but prior I was home based. Positive space to the sims rental car 108 hours min usually did 150-256 though. Granted the suck of waiting for a upgrade 5.5 years was awful but it was worth it.

I hope it gets better for us all. vaccine and no 2nd wave, and hopefully this is a minor bump nothing like 08-09 and it’s only a 12 month setback w hiring and upgrades. My advice would be to stick it out and give it some time. things have a way of working out, to capt to instructor to a job w big 5. or LCC before you tbink it will right now.

USMCFLYR

If a professional pilot truly feels the s/he has no valuable skills outside of the cockpit then you have been sold a bag of poop by whomever told you that.
look at the 7 tenets of CRM that you master as a professional pilot and tell me that those skills aren’t highly valued outside of aviation. You may have to reword then with non-aviation language to understand it, but that is no different than taking military experience and civilianizing it to be explain your skill set to others.

As for is it worth it?
there are lots of jobs in aviation that allow a good living outside of ‘commercial’ pilot.
Maybe broaden your horizons too.

ONLY YOU will be able to decide whether it is worth it with your conditions.

Skylarking

^^^^^ This ^^^^^^

If flying is what you really want to do then stick with it. In the long run you'll be happier. The downturn we're all experiencing is temporary in the really big scheme of things.

rcflying53

Many years ago, I was hired as a controller for Chicago Center the same time I got an offer at Eagle. Had to make a difficult decision. I chose Eagle. There wasn’t day that went by that I didn’t wish I chose the other path. Once I got to AA, things were VERY different. I don’t even think about that decision anymore and all the regional bs is also forgotten. It’s a different world at a major. You’re treated better and the guys/gals you fly with are top notch. Granted, there are miserable people here who try and make this job/place miserable, but they’ve let the bs of airlines get to them and there are very few. Yeah, it’s not fair sometimes, it’s not as glamorous anymore, it’s hard missing big life events, and we are always trying to make more or gain more. But, at the end of the day, it’s the easiest job in the world.

My point: stick with it. Don’t let the regional world get you jaded to the airline world or your aspirations. You’ll appreciate your job at a Major or LCC that much more when you get there. It’s just going to take time, and we’ve all been in your shoes at some point.

Dolphinflyer

Depends. what are your job skills outside of being a pilot?

At 42, my guess is you really haven't seen the wreckage from corporate/career carpet bombing that occurs when people hit their 50's. At 55, I've watched most of my buddies see their jobs whacked and maybe 1 recovered to the same altitude due to a specialized niche that was needed. Get another job at that point? Good luck.