dracir1

Yes. This. All of this and frankly, nothing but this. Professional at all times - which means there are instances where Frontier benefits from you and me doing our job despite lack of training and resources.

Go to work, enjoy the people you can, do your job professionally and go home. Not the greatest existence but it beats flipping burgers or working in a cubicle.

And you gotta kind of forget there are other pilots working at other places making more for doing less…until contract time.

OpsCheckOK

^^^^^^This 100%^^^^^^^
I left for all of the reasons most are stating; F9 has excellent crews and there was a ton of money to be made when I was there. But IMHO, there is so much more to a job than merely Doing the work and taking home a check. God knows, we are doing the job away from home and our families so much, I have always wanted to have it be as complete of a fulfilling and enjoyable experience as possible. I know that probably makes me too naive and too much of an ideologue for many, but hey, I leave home with a smile on my face, effortlessly keep it at work and arrive home 1-5 days later still smiling, albeit a little more fatigued than when I left. I’ll even happily shrug it off if someone here calls out my inability to write a post without an unbearably long run on sentence.
I’m not sure why people have such a hard time understanding that some pilots want to have pride in where they work or want to go the extra mile to make the customer experience not just acceptable, but excellent. Personally I like being associated with a company that is customer service oriented. I think many feel that way. The management at F9 doesn’t seem to care about much except keeping their own wallets fat, dumb and happy. Customer Service? Nah, let’s be extra sleazy and make our website or phone numbers more than difficult to find in case someone wants a justified refund or credit. Employee Relations? Nah, let’s tell everyone they’re making more than Delta pilots make (since that will obviously make them trust and respect us), despite obvious public information to the contrary. Why bother giving pilots or flight attendants the tools they need to succeed when we know some will do it for us because they genuinely do have pride and are just plain embarrassed to have to look at a paying customer or child and disappoint them.

I know this is not the way everyone feels, I’m probably even in the minority. But for me, it was too important to just too important to stay and accept lower tier mediocrity at best. Thankfully I didn’t have to give up much seniority. I genuinely feel for those who will be giving up a lot of it or will have to stay and put up with it because of the golden handcuffs. I sincerely hope that hinges somehow turn the corner and F9 shoots to the top rapidly. I just didn’t see that happening in the 15 years I had left and management had never given enough useful or even truthful information to make a confident decision to stay. I enjoy making good $$, having a willing and able expanded team always a phone call or text away, getting a nice meal onboard on most flights (I know it doesn’t make up for $$ or QOL, but it’s a perk I enjoy), fairly decent seniority after 7 months allowing me to not wear a jacket in the winter since I always have a Caribbean/warm weather RON…..The seemingly small intangibles add up and they make things pretty damn pleasant on top of already making top $$ and having good qol. I say all this knowing how quickly things can change.

It’s always a crapshoot. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.

Now hopefully if things go south where I’m at, that line works well on my wife as she’s at the door with her suitcase and the kids!