Former spirit pilots, do you regret leaving to AA? If yes why, if no why? TIA.

 

I was a check airman at NK before leaving to AA. Honestly, that job at NK was the greatest job I have ever had and I miss it dearly. I had a blast working there and the company made all of my wildest dreams come true, and I regretted leaving for months. With that being said, I was on the younger side (very late 20s) and working at AA was a childhood dream that I always wanted to fulfill. When I was offered the interview and later given a CJO, it was hard to say no. I miss my job at NK a lot, especially the people, but I have faith that I will learn to love my job at AA the same. I hope this helps.

 

I am a former NK who made the jump to AA. Personally I think the jury is still out if I made the right move or not. At NK you have substantial better qol, and currently get paid more. At AA I am constantly flying with (understandably so) really disgruntled Captains. They have been through a lot and they are overall good people, but hearing the same USAir/AA/TWA/AW hate does get a little old. Our schedules at AA are wildly fatiguing, and there is practically zero ability to change your schedule around. It’s so bad that I am bidding back down to LC next month because you have more flexibility with your schedule through proffering (picking trips). Also, this whole 1st year pay is horrible, I will be on it for 17 months. If you are at NK at Dallas I would say it’s the right move. I personally wouldn’t have confidence in the NK/B6 future in DFW, ORD, DTW, ATL. I made the move based on the long term. I am hopeful for a new contract, I like the idea of maybe doing WB flying someday, and I believe in the longevity of the company over NK/B6 having young kids. So to summarize my rambling: go if you live in DFW, or want to live in one of our other bases. Doing NB at AA is basically the opposite to NK. Zero qol, less pay, not as happy crews.

 

Less pay? How much does NK pay during training?? Because I remember the horror stories my NK buddies told me when they got hired. Flexibility must be true, because they’re beyond happy about that part. Happy crews, I guess there’s a bit of everything in a 15,000 pilot group, I personally have no experience in that regard as I just got hired, but in my current employer (3,000 pilots), there’s also weird/dumb people, but super nice people for the most part. So I don’t think it’s American-specific, it happens everywhere.
The first year pay is fishy as F yes, including the no 401k BS, but that’s getting fixed in this contract it seems?, which obviously doesn’t mean jack for those of you that went through that already, but……
I’ve seen both AA and NK checks, and they really don’t look the same I agree…. AA > NK

 

Keep in mind, Spirit won’t exist in 2 years. The SLI will be messy, and Spirit work rules may or may not come with the JCBA.

 

I agree, that was a huge factor in why I left. I knew all the good NK things likely wouldn’t be there after the JCBA. Or, if they are they are neutered down a bit. The pay scales between us and NK are pretty much identical right now. At NK though you’re on that training pay for a few months then on your full pay. Here you’re on first year pay for 15-18 months. I’m not going to do the math, but I would bet that in your first 24 months you make more at NK than AA right now. Also, you can do very well on the X and Y list even as a first year there, you aren’t getting much PR or PM here as a newbie. Again, I agree that long term AA>NK, that’s why I made the move. But if you live in say LAS and really just want to fly for a legacy, I really don’t think it would be a good move.

 

Also it’s inevitable that AA soon far surpasses spirit pay. For most people it depends where you live. For me the number one reason I’m switching from NK to AA is for the security of dfw at AA vs NK.

the way it looks I’ll probably hold Dfw captain at AA before I ever would have at spirit even with a multi year head start.

 

this needs to be posted to C&R. They would lose their minds.

 

You’re basing your career decision based off of training pay comparisons…?

On current pay scales NK makes more on the 320 in each seat and at each year. And with the JCBA it’s likely NK/B6 will match if not improve upon whatever AAs new rates will be.

 

lol you have awfully high hopes for that JCBA.