conquestdz

As someone who has been here for quite a while I can say that there have been several complete engine failures and several more where the engine still ran but would not make power. I would take the quote above a step further and say believe that it very likely will happen to you. You had better be prepared for it at all times.

GoHomeLeg

2 weeks at most. The training footprint is about 2.5 to 3 months. The last award had new hires go to all 3 bases. A lot can change in the next year and a half. I would consider checking back 6 months from when you're looking to start.

Hacker15e

You'll know your base assignment a couple weeks into training, depending on the schedule of the system bid compared to your training start date.

That being said, do you really want to move into a regional base? As a retiring military guy, unless you have some substantial skeletons in your closet, you'll only be at a regional 18-24 months at most. Do you really want to move your family for such a short period?

aTomatoFlames

So much for that staple. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...series-program I wonder of this means our SEA maintenance will change again.

Rebeldog

No skeletons. I read a lot of what people have to say, get a good laugh at all the bashing that goes on, but what I do get out of this is QOL is everything. From what I have seen, living in base seems to be one of the biggest increases of QOL for most everyone. Any little extra time with my family is a huge deal for me since I have been gone a lot with the Navy.

magneto

You got it right. Not having to commute will increase your QOL 100% at any airline you work for. Even if it is an easy commute, it is still extra time away from home. Plus it is an extra cost,(crash pad, hotel, etc)
The catch is, do you live in a place that is a domicile for your next airline? or does your airline close that domicile.
There are numerous examples of pilots moving to a city, and it is a domicile for their company, and they can hold it, and then down the road the company closes it or you get bumped out of it. Now you become a commuter or move.
Or at the majors you might have the situation were you can't hold the seat in your aircraft in the domicile that you live in. that usually changes with time, but as you move up in seniority you might find that you can't hold CA in your domicile.
Bottom line, there are really only a few places you can live where you can be sure the majors will always have a domicile.
If you plan to go to Compass, there are 3 choices.

Hacker15e

Yeah, I get it -- I'm a retired AF fighter guy, I'm familiar with the stresses of both being away from family, as well as the stresses of picking up the family circus tent and moving it often. I've been at a regional for a year, and have a short 1-leg commute to my airline's base. I moved away from the USAF base I retired from to a (long thought out and calculated) new city that my wife was happy with, and which would be an easy commute to junior bases for most of the legacy and major airlines. Later on down the line, once I'm established at a career airline, we'll re-evaluate moving somewhere to make the QOL better at that job.

You're right, QOL is everything, but don't compartmentalize so much that you believe that the physical amount of time at home with your family is exclusively equal to QOL. Moving your family to a Compass base, only to get hired at another airline in 12 months and moving your family into the next airline's base is a lot of unnecessary stress (and cost, since Uncle Sugar will no longer be picking up the tab for the move) in a short period of time.

If you can have a simple commute to your (somewhat temporary) regional job, and then move your family once you decide on your "career airline", that IMHO is a far better plan. Compass has a nice commuter hotel program that will ease (or maybe even eliminate) the need for a crashpad, and there is a lot of movement which should lead to better flying schedules rapidly.

But, maybe you have a different family dynamic than I do.

Mesabah

DCI will probably shrink to just ExpressJet and Skywest. Everyone else will be gone in 10 years.

Mandrake

Best rumor I've heard all week.

flyguy94

Explains why they've been growing SEA so much recently. Things weren't looking good for our sea base with the 190's.