asmallstep4man

I'm bringing back a thread from 2018 into the current post-pandemic hiring spree:

Specifically interested in junior people with a great QOL, but open to anyone...

For those of you that chase QOL over money:

What company:
Where based:
Equipment:
How have you been there:
What's your schedule (including time it takes to commute):
Can you drop your entire schedule? How easily:
What do you make (ballpark):
Do you commute:

This could be helpful for those of us, like myself, that really only need to make a minimum of 100k/yr to make things work, and want to be home with the fam and my hobbies as much as possible.

NoDeskJob

DL
ATL
320
6+ years
trips in bid package have deteriorated greatly the last year. 80%+ 3-4 day trips. 🤮.
So I have to work HARD lately to drop, swap with pot, swap/drop with pilots to get rid of most of the trips. Then I pick up EASY 1-2 day broken trips. That takes a a bit of seniority and scheduling knowledge though.
you can easily do the above and make 100K-150k.
most months I credit about 60-70 hours. Some months I’ll do 1 premium. Other months I’ll only do 50 hours or so

Corned Beef

What company: FDX
Where based: MEM
Equipment: Wide body
How have you been there: 1-2 years
What's your schedule (including time it takes to commute): mixed bag, bid rsv but could hold a line.
Can you drop your entire schedule? How easily: yes, as long as staffing allows it.
What do you make (ballpark): $190/hr and our min average is 73/hrs a month. Usually credit a little higher than that.
Do you commute: no.

It’s normal to fly <300 hours a year here. I do mostly domestic flying and am home a lot more than I am away. Very high QOL, other than living in Memphis, with wide body pay.

echelon

How much of that is WOCL and could you make adjustments to only fly daytime?

OversoldCommute

If your top priority is QOL, then I'll throw in a vote for BOS or JFK 190 at B6. Because it's the lower paying airplane, a lot of guys bid off it ASAP, so your seniority skyrockets the first year or two. I've been here 10 months and am bidding 50%, and should be sub 30% by the end of the year. Now the trips themselves aren't that great, but as a local guy (not bidding specifically for commutable trips) I can hold a lot of the better overnights that the 190 does have (FLL and SJU on the beach, or BNA downtown for example). My schedule as awarded credits 75-80 hours usually, but I can pick up extra pretty much whenever is convenient for me, and our IROPs tend to make you extra money. On the flip side, it's pretty difficult to drop anything at all, and dropping below 70 is a hard no (unless another pilot picks it up directly from you). But as a local guy who can survive on min guarantee, I've gotten pretty comfortable with my QOL. YMMV.

PotatoChip

Oh, and you failed to mention those 190s are being retired at an accelerated rate.
QOL on a dying fleet doesn’t last long. Enjoy it while you can.

OversoldCommute

Good point. But, the first 190 doesn't leave for another year and a half, so I think there's still time to come here, enjoy the QOL for a couple years, then by the time you're booted off the 190 you can have good QOL on something else. If that's the only priority.

PotatoChip

If someone is planning a career of good QOL, a year and half is nothing.
And then you won't have that good of QOL at JB.
Sure, living in base helps anywhere, but BOS A320 with under 10 years on property? Good luck.
Even as an FO living in JFK at 60% is still mediocre compared with legacy contracts. Can't drop below 70, no coverage, can rarely swap trips, too controlling of language. Cant split trips to drop, can't split trips to pick up.
I had better QOL at my previous regional with less seniority.

JB is a decent place to work, but 190 notwithstanding, QOL is not great here.

hockeypilot44

I'm going on a decade and a half as an fo at an airline that supposedly has 1 year upgrades (it does in New York). I'm a commuter so I'm on a fleet that flies to where I live. I don't chase layovers at home, but I do chase trips that start or end with a deadhead to where I live. It cuts off a commute on one end and pays me for the other end. That's my trick.

rickair7777

In general, staying an FO on a junior fleet will get you schedule flexibility, and your choice of vacay... whether that's better QOL than say being more junior on international ops is up to you. A lot of this is in the eye of the beholder, and obviously geography matters.