LloydBraun

Why!
Spent 2 decades at Options. I definitely wouldn’t look at Flex. No Union and KR will always have his good ol boys club. Do the math from above posts that’s been provided. You are looking at basically 202 days a year work.

Now granted I’m fairly senior FO at Spirit but I work between 11 and 13 days a month usually 12 which still gets me to min credit. That’s conservatively 45 to 60 less work days a year. Not to mention the flexibility to manipulate your schedule dropping, swapping or adding trips something that you will not be able to do at a Fractional.

Biggest selling point the fracs have is the home basing. If you are dead set on fractional then Netjets otherwise keep hammering at the Majors.

Joebob21

A few reasons I think a lot of people consider fractionals.
1) As you mentioned home basing. This is a big one. Fact is that most bases, especially junior bases are in high cost of living, sometimes less than desirable places to live. It’s like they always say, location, location, location.
2)Pay. Now before I get ripped apart on this one hear me out. Flexjet advertises
100K starting pay. That’s not bad when you consider regional level pay even up through multiple year seniority captain. Now if you’re talking long term, of course there is no argument, pay at a major will likely surpass what you can make here. But for some of us, time is not a luxury we can afford. 3). Captain Upgrade. In as little as 2 years you can upgrade to captain, meaning better pay. Regional is 1000hrs min. which can vary significantly depending on airline. 1.5 years likely being the average at a regional. Compare the Captain pay at the regionals vs. fractional. 4)flight benefits. You may say that 121 outright wins this, with perks like KCM and CASS it’s great, I agree. On the other hand fractionals keep all points for travel, hotel points, and car rental points. When they travel they have positive space seating, that they didn’t have to pay for. No standby, no wearing a monkey suit to ride shotgun. 5)the flying. You mentioned how much more a fractional pilot works, some people enjoy flying. Maybe not those that fly between LGA, EWR, ORD, DCA, MSP etc. The guys that fly to the Bahamas, Hawaii, Mexico, and get paid to stay there with a healthy per diem policy, they enjoy their job. It comes down to your timeline as an individual, the young 20 something that has time to invest will undoubtedly be rewarded after sacrificing the first decade of their career to climb the ladder, the others may see the fractional as a way to enjoy life now, and hold the QOL from the get go.

JMO127

FLEX, XO, NETJETS, PLANESE, TMC, TRADEWINDS, CAPE AIR and many others all have KCM too.

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LloydBraun

I wasn’t trying to get into a ****ing contest.

I could give a crap about hotel points or rental car points. I don’t give a crap about exotic locations. As a guy who has sat in both seats Frac and Major, for me at least no comparison. I’m not loading bags, I’m not cleaning planes, dealing with catering or restocking. I make a left turn into the cockpit and that’s my world. When **** starts going down in back either the FA’s, gate agent or security handle it while I put my seat back and enjoy my Clif Bar.

Was simply trying to point out a guy like him is very likely going to be able to get hired by a Major in the near future.

If all that other stuff is that important to a person then by all means go for it but I will take my 18 days off a month, my ability to move trips, drop trips or swap trips to meet what I want to do each month with a 13 to 15% direct contribution and occupational LTD coverage to retirement age.

LJ JE

Not trying to hijack a thread, but I want to point out there's no airport standby at XOJET. That means alot for me in terms of overall happiness.

There's pros and cons everywhere.

Jaren

Flying for a major airline vs. a fractional is not the comparison the original poster was asking about. With a little seniority at any of the LCC's or Majors there really isn't much of a comparison which one would be better in my opinion. How about the thought process of jumping from a regional to get better pay and schedules at Flexjet to build time in and then apply to a major from there. I understand that the faster route is probably staying at the regional but for someone that cant afford $60K a year for the next few years is moving to a fractional a viable option for building time to get to a LCC or major airline?

verlthepearl

The $100k starting pay should have a huge * by it. Yes, it would be possible to make that much your first year if you’re insane enough to work 20+ days a months, count your per diem as pay and you make your fuel bonuses, which you may or may not make depending on how the PIC inserts the fuel numbers.
I’ve been here 3 years and I netted $60k last year working 16 days a month. Don’t count on making $100k your first year.
Even if I made $100k a year, all the non-flying work you do, the chaos of it all and working with some of the people do (think Capt Maybelline or Capt Catering) it wouldn’t be nearly enough to be worth it. QOL trumps pay all day long and twice on sundays for me.

round2

Are you flying a fixed schedule or PBS?

dh-98

And what did you gross? Not net please.

verlthepearl

As a 3rd year SIC I made $72k.
I’m on PBS. It’s moronic to be on the fixed schedule. First year SIC on the fixed schedule makes $22,000 LESS per year than he would being on PBS, doing the same job but working longer rotations with no control over your schedule.
For me, the juice doesn’t come close to being worth the squeeze but for others it is, like any other company in the world.