You mean those same Senior captains who are punching out finally after 20 plus years to be junior FOs at a legacy carrier because they are tired of working minimum days off and 4-day trips….

You mean those guys? I’ve flown with quite a few of them that are now Junior to me.

Alright cool, show me a regional pilot who can utilizes their vacation and vacations slides to generate damn near 2 months off of work? I gonna hear crickets, I managed to pull that off at Atlas before leaving and I was only about 65 percent seniority at the time.

Since we are talking about Senior Daddies, Atlas has Senior Daddy 747 drivers based in ANC who will go out 3 to 4 day lap in Asia before getting back to ANC and getting themselves hard rest in base ie nights at home for easily 30 to 50 hour mid-trip and still getting CRT for i, this where the 25 plus nights at home comes from…. That’s not happening at a Regional…

As a commuter, gateway travel is a great benefit and will boost one’s QOL. The only way that benefit will be beaten is by living base or close to base within driving distance of a SC callout window.

Hotels - The last La Quinta I stayed at was at a regional….

Look, Unless you worked at Atlas, you’ll know. But since you haven’t, you will not understand and you a more detail explanation of it, fly with a former Arlas driver at your shop, discuss it over beers. We will be happy to explain to it as to what we loved about the job and didn’t love about it and our reasons for leaving.

 

My last trip at 5Y was amazing. First class deadhead to HNL. Sit there for two days waiting on a plane. Fly to SYD and sit two more days. Fly to BKK for 30 hours. Fly to ICN for 20, then back to ANC. I was manipulating the system as well and making amazing money. The hotels were great, I got paid to sleep half the flight, and the other 2/3 of the trip I was playing global tourist. Atlas is a decent gig. I miss a lot of aspects of it. But, now I make even more money, and work less, and have wayyyy better contract rules. I don’t hate on anyone for going to Giant and staying there. I had a great time and would have stayed if the contract had been more livable.

 

^^^^^This^^^^^
We definitely need to be more competitive in various areas to retain talent like yourself and many others like Swakid8, but I will say it does eject some low hanging fruit we won't miss. These next couple of years will be interesting on what lies ahead and I'm hopeful we bring in some more cheddar in the right areas to retain the best folks.

*No one can argue against the comfort/QoL of living in base at another outfit which Giant doesn't cover; however, if we bring up some goodness in some obvious areas the hemorrhaging would slow to a trickle. Most would leave only due to the longer time away (which is a big one) and perhaps name brand envy or whatever. Longevity is always a question no matter where you go, but the Feds did step in for the Big 3 so that helps a bit as well.

 

Why haha? You seem like a decent dude from our previous interactions, but why? Especially that last slight in bold. That’s just disrespectful dog, and you’re flexing that weak ass zinger like you’re sweet to someone who’s probably much younger than you and going to retire a 1%’er at American.

No, I don’t mean “those guys”. I ran into one of “those guys” about 3 weeks ago on an impatiently brisk walk to a lengthy sunny layover. He’s the same senior captain flying the same senior day turns. I’ve honestly never flown with a character who kept me intrigued for the entirety of a DEN - SRQ day turn. The number of fascinating stories in that man’s repertoire was vast. I recognized him immediately and couldn’t gather myself to continue executing my brisk pace to the hotel shuttle without small talk. The same group of senior Captains are flying their day turns out of DEN, SLC, IAH, LAX, etc. They’ll ride that schedule out until retirement. That was the small talk.

That’s where I’m getting at with the “trust me bro”. It’s not directed to be condescending. I’m actually intrigued but skeptical.

No disrespect, but if I can read through your impressive number of grammatical errors, I can comprehend why “Arlas” QoL could be decent under certain circumstances, if given a detailed explanation. I’ve already received a few from others.

 

I hope you all get that. I will say that widebody at a legacy is pretty amazing. 787/777 is the way to go. Two SFO-SIN trips a month and you’re done. It’s the easiest thing ever for $260/hr. The downside is dealing with the cockpit door and the humans. But it’s been worth it.

 

Most definitely worth it no argument there, especially when considering the domesticated alternative for several of us. Great location as well knocking it out rather quickly on 16hr or so legs coast to island. Hopefully ya'll get a couple of days to run around. Reminds me of our former Houston Express folks knocking out three turns in 10 days or less dragging in 90-100hrs every month. Terrible location to revisit every month compared to SIN and hopefully you can change up your chalkboard for some global variety after awhile. Do some other nice locations in the Asia sector as well as Europe or down under. Makes life very interesting/fun being a seasonal global pilot, especially when you've mapped out the annual festivals and able to hang out for a bit on someone else's dime and more.

 

As a single dewd with no kids there is not a flying job that is more fun than being in the long haul international ACMI world. Every pilot should, at the very least, spend a few years in this arena........i guarantee you wont regret it.

Also anyone arguing that the regionals are a better place to be.......well they havent done long haul ACMI

 

Great insight. I would have perished long ago if I were not married when I started this endeavor living that QoL. Definitely can be flatlined as a married guy no doubt, but in a different way. Hear the meds are much better now (I joke, I think) and the domesticated (Domestic Single Flyers) have no clue whatsoever what lies beyond their own FIR boundary. None...

 

There is much to be said for having a multitude of days off in a row to spend with family / kids than when home every day in the but running on fumes when you finish a shift doing 6 sectors and dealing with WX and PAX all day only to have min rest to do it all again the next day. Everyones values are different, its just what works best for you and your family. However some of the gents on my intake course who are just turning 24/25 are single and about to fly the world over have got some of the best experiences coming their way!

 

I'd do day trips if it was two legs, and paid 6-ish hours or better. And I lived 15 minutes or less from the parking lot.

Other than that I prefer to have longer runs of days off, which means multi-day often back-to-back trips. Married with Children.