Sailaway

"And nobody is evening mentioning the travel benefits, which are hard to use as a family, but I would personally looking forward to." Reply With Quote

NoSID,
Hate to rain on your parade, but travel benefits heavily favor fracs. I am retired Delta and did 2 years at NJ before furlough. I still use my passes on occasion but that requires some planning and flexibility. However, miles and hotel points are far better. I am still using points accumulated during those 2 years. Some friends who were not furloughed take terrific vacations every year at very little cost. They tell me they cannot begin to use all of their points. And, of course, they are elite with the airlines and hotels.
Sailaway

jetlag7

I agree with Sailaway. I spent 10 years at a regional and have been at a fractional for the last 9. My vacations and travel have been exponentially superior to anything I enjoyed during my airline life.

NoSidNoStar

Sorry, regionals do not compare to good corporates, but to 135.
Regional flying is time building, with very few exceptions.

The travel benefits quote is out of contest, it was about adding up to the total monetary value of the remuneration package, not as as pure point by point benefit comparison, but in any case; I have a lot of points on hotels, especially Marriott, working toward a LifeTime Platinum status, and not impossible to achieve, and indecent points with amex.
I also can't use them as much as I would like because of lack of time.
What good are them to me if I can only use them twice a year?
I have a friend that when he was working for a regional, not even a mayor, he effectively lived in Europe where he is from. He commuted between continents. He travelled all over the words, he was taking vacations every moth. Yes, he was single, and senior.
Not only he had unlimited travel (not an amount of points, but an infinite amount of jumpseats) most importantly he had the time to use it.
How much money would have that cost? How many amex points?
Like I said, not for a family, but if you are single or flexible, I think it is a very good gig. My thoughts. The ex Delta guys does know better than me for sure.

But the bottom line of the discussion, as started from the kid who initiated the thread, is "which direction to move at the beginning of a career"
So the question for the ex Delta guy, being experienced in the two worlds:
If you would start all over, would you go to Delta or to NetJet?
Would you suggest to a kid to try go to a major or to go corporate?

Again: QOL is subjective, QOM (Quantity Of Money) is objective.
Here you go, I conceived a new term.

P.S. Oh, yeah, there is also that small thing called safety, slightly in favor of airline flying, statistically speaking.

Sailaway

OK, I'll bite. My airline career was up and down. Left the USAF in 74 so I missed the hiring in the early 70's. Got hired almost 3 years later at NAL. Life is good. Then PanAM bought us in '81. Bad news. At NAL I could have made Capt in 5-6 years, but that was screwed by PAA. In '91, got lucky again to go with the Delta deal. PAA went out of business about a month later. Another seniority hit. It took me 21 years to make Capt. Then the 2nd bankruptcy (PAA and DAL) did additional damage to my retirement. Missed the age 65 change by less than 2 weeks. Went to NJ for 2 years before furlough. (Some of you know who I am by now.) I will admit that I enjoyed the flying at NJ more than airline flying but the pay was not even close. When I went to DAL, I had to commute for almost 2 years. Hated it. For the rest of my airline time, I lived in my base. If I had had to commute, it would have been terrible. Time to answer the question. Frac flying was more fun and, if you want to live in the boonies, better. That said, living in base at a major airline is the best flying job out there. Even with 2 bankruptcy's and 2 seniority mergers, I made more money and had more time off than the vast majority of pilots from my generation. In the end, it depends on what you think is most important.
Sailaway

NoSidNoStar

Sorry to hear you missed the age 65 rule by few days, must have been hard.

Sailaway

Yeah, it sucked. That a..hole Obestar (probably misspelled) cost me and about 350 other guys our jobs. He got his. He was voted out in the next election.

CEFO

Guy and a gal who work for us both graduated number 1 in their respective classes and chose C-5's and tankers respectively because it was their dream job. I would have loved to have flown fighters but i think that when people look at how little fighter pilots actually fly it isn't as appealing as first look (outsiders perspective, once again i would have given my left nut to fly an F-18!).

USMCFLYR

The appeal for many is what you do in that 1 hr of flight time.
I work with many former USAF heavy pilots and they are certainly a well traveled group across the board.

kingairfun

Cannot compare Corporate/Fractional vs Regional.... It's an unfair comparison that is completely one sided....

Fractional vs. Legacy Carrier..... each has it's benefits....

Better QOL on the road with Fractional.. Better schedule and pay with Legacy... Miss the bennies of being on the road at NJA, but definitely much nicer schedule at the airlines.

Chris99

Could you be more specific on the "much nicer schedule at the airlines"? Thanks.