You will see a bunch of differing opinions. Some people have it easy (usually 175 FOs in DFW because that was the growing fleet until recently). Everyone else, not so much.

It really is the tale of two airlines.

175s have better schedules than their 145 counterparts. They typically fly the longer legs, so they are a bit more productive.

The big picture, Envoy has 1 reserve pilot for every 2 line holders. You will more than likely spend a lot of time on reserve, and when you become a lineholder, you will probably have to endure some unproductive lines for a while.

There is not a lot of OT to be picked up. On the 145, you see a lot of opportunities for overnights worth 2 hours with a 20 hour sit. That's great if you are single, homeless, and just like to hang out in a hotel. Not much money there.

You can lose the OT if you end up dropping a day for a scheduling conflict or missing a commute. You can lose the pay overage of an overblock if you get a reassignment. The pay protections here are really bad.

Anyone who tells you that Envoy is great, probably lives in base, flies the 175, and bids top 50% in their lines. Take their advice with a grain of salt, there is little to suggest that any new hires will have the same fortunate circumstances they had.

I do think that you're being a bit harsh as well. As a new hire, you'll probably end up sitting reserve no more than 6 months (again depends what base/what plane). The biggest attraction to Envoy (aside from Flow) is the movement in seniority....well because of the flow. I know guys at Endeavor/Republic who've left for other companies because an upgrade is out of sight due to the stagnation there. At Envoy you'll at least be able to upgrade once you hit your 950 hours.

But to answer to the OP
1) Nothing is tough if you study
2) Plan on the 145
3) Pay could be worse

To me it sounds like you don't really understand our pay protections.
FYI, they are actually one of the few points in our contract that are close to industry leading.

Now that is completely laughable. Our pay protections are horrible. If you think our pay protections are industry leading, you need to talk to some people at other airlines.

I'm glad I made you laugh.

I have. And ours are pretty darn good.

OT always going over your monthly guarantee. Opportunity to get OT premium for cancelled/lost OT. Paid TL. Paid bereavement. SK makeup for paid absences and DTS. IOE displacements with pay protections and no way to make you sit reserve.

OT can and is still be offset by deductions. There are even cute little examples shown in section 3.

Pay protections are pay protections... not "opportunities" to make it up, or offset it from your sick bank.

You said before that we had a min day pay, and you were wrong about that. I hope you've learned since then. There is no min day pay at Envoy. If so, we wouldn't have so many lost days on our schedules.

Not sure you are reading it correctly. Let me ask you this. What airline pays for those deductions?

And yes, we do have min day pay. Just got to read the contract on when it applies. That is part of our contract that does suck.

We have min day, except for when we don't. Which is all the time, and not when it matters. Our contract is the longest in the industry, with a bunch of company friendly carve outs.

Here's how a min day works on the line.
Envoy Day 1- 3 hours, Day 2 - 5 hours, Day 3 - 3 hours, Day 4 - 4 hours. Trip total - 15.
Other Airlines with a 4 hour min day... You start at 17.

At Envoy, Day 2, you overblocked to 6 hours, but Day 4, you got reassigned to 2 hours. You get paid, 15 hours.
At other airlines. You now get paid 18 hours.

It's all these little differences that guys/girls like you don't realize are hurting you in the paycheck.

You get rigs and min day mixed up.
I just agreed, this part of our contract sucks.

Anyway, how is this relevant to losing OT pay?
Again - who pays for those deductions?
Also, don't say "other airlines". There aren't many who don't use cancellation guarantee.

From my understanding, Skywest, Republic, Endeavor, Expressjet, TSA, GoJet, and Compass to name a few. Some I know for certain, others, I'm pretty sure, but could be wrong about a detail here or there.

Most other places, you are usually well above monthly min guarantee that it isn't even a consideration.

Most regionals don't have rigs. Those are different. https://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/...-rigs-101.html

I'm talking about a min day. On reserve, each day should be 3.9. If I fly more than that, I get paid more than that. If I fly 70 hours over the course of 14 days, and don't get called off RAP the other 5, I get paid 75 hours. Same scenario at Skywest, I get paid 90.