$36 an hour….I remember flying a CRJ for $21 getting the $hi; kicked out out of me in a blizzard going into ORD and then sleeping in a broken recliner in the crew room to do it again the next day because I couldn’t afford a hotel room or a crash pad. These clueless kids walking in to a six figure airline job with a wet ATP ****ed off they don’t get a summer vacation week have no idea.

Okay grasshopper. First of all, this is "just a job" for 99% of the people that work, anywhere, including all of us here on APC, this is not a hobby for any of us. I happen to like flying, but it is still just a job. I also knew, when I started this job it would mean I could be away from my family for more than 8 hours at a time, because "flying". From your profile I assume you have been a 121 pilot for 2 years, and have a family with kids you want to be home for. I applaud you for that. But current hiring conditions are amazing. Plenty of people on here have gone through sitting on reserve for a decade or being furloughed for a decade, while raising a family. If you elect to stay at a regional because you think it is better for you go ahead. But FFS don't expect sympathy for your plight. You have choices we didn't have. Good for you, don't ruin it by complaining about it.

Oh, and just because I can't help myself:
Capitalization/interpunction
"Thanks for the insight though"
"airheads think this"
(JFC)

Reserve in LAX has been a good deal for me. I worked 5 days in January. I looked at the credit for everyone on reserve at the end of the month and it ranged from 15-55 hours. So, some worked 3 days and others 10 or 11. One guy had 100+ hours, but I’m sure that was on purpose. January is a slower month, but I worked 8 days in Dec and that was my high since consolidating.

History shows again and again that the same event that shrinks or eliminates your regional airline will also slow or stop hiring at all majors. It will happen without warning and there will be no safe harbor.

These negative events happen every 8 or 10 years. The hiring wave we are currently seeing has never happened in most of our careers.

No. No you do not want to stay there to raise a family. Your family needs you to get out of there.

They don't know what they don't know! But as long as he doesn't have to sit reserve!

If you live in MSP, DFW, or CLT, by all means skip JetBlue and gamble on getting hired at your local major/legacy airline. Never commute.

Otherwise, you owe it to your family to minimize your regional experience. Get to a major and then move to base. Literally no other way to win in this career.

Rather than go to a regional with crap pay and quick upgrades, I wanted a regional where I could be comfortable to raise my family - “just in case” I didn’t get hired at a major right away. (Keep in mind this was right after 9/11 and there were about 12 majors at the time).

So I went to the regional that had pretty good work rules and pay that was not terrible for a regional. It was called Comair. And I got to be home with my family.

Three years on reserve, pay cuts, and a decade in the right seat. Then Delta pulled the plug and 1800 of us had to start over again at other regionals because none of the majors were hiring. Instead of commuting to the majors when my kids were little, I wound up commuting to another regional when my kids were early teens - and that’s when you need to be home the most.

There will never be a good time to commute with a family, but there’s also never a good time to get comfortable at a regional.

Sacred words of wisdom right here. If you think staying at a regional is safe, go try and find anyone flying for Pinnacle, Mesaba, Colgan or ComAir. Advance as fast as you possibly can.

Throw ExpressJet on that list. They were the darlings of the regionals not long before they were completely shuttered.

If you were dumb enough to do all of that for $600 then sounds like you were paid accordingly. Seems like less of a badge of honor and more of a mark of idiocy.

Personally I stayed away from the regionals because I valued my skills and hard work too much to sell it for McDonald’s wages. Also, I did not want to further exasperate the industry and be another guy they hired saying “I’m willing to work for food stamps.”

The old timers that knowingly went to the regionals when it was the worst of the worst WERE the problems. You only showed regional management that you could be bought for a cheap price and so you were.

Stop complaining about how good new pilots have it now when you were willing to work for cheap with terrible work rules. If it was that bad you should have gone 135, military, or something outside of the aviation industry. Otherwise shut up and accept that you sold your skills for a lesser price than others.