Sounds good to me.😃

Yes, they spend that kind of money. My 121 supplemental spends close to train a MD-80 FO.

Southwest FO makes a dollar or two less than a Frontier captain.

lol, yes please. Do you think any F9 captain comes close to the compensation and benefits available to any SWA FO? I don't know what your situation is, but I need to build financial security. Upgrade is always nice, but I'm not going sell-out my future just to play captain.

I can tell you that the average frontier captain currently makes 180,000/year. That's from the payroll dept. I can't speak for southwest other than to look at their pay rates. also, keep in mind that the future will almost assuredly include much better pay rates at frontier.

That's pretty optimistic considering Frontier is owned by the same entity as Spirit and they had to go on strike to get a contract (raise). But hey you never know.

What's year 2-4 captain pay? $110/hr or so? You're not going to make $180k. That "average" is a payroll snapshot from a group that are nearly all on the highest longevity rate. Moreover, consider our 401k match, direct contribution, and medical premiums. We're talking seven figure differences over the course of a career vs four other carriers that I've looked at. I certainly hope your optimism holds true with F9's future, but I don't believe we'll have caught up before the next down cycle. Hopefully we just have some solid ground in this ULCC experiment by then.

Wow. That's it. I knew you guys were low, but I didn't realize it was that low. I almost made that as an MD-80 first officer last year.

Are you arguing that frontier will operate under our current contract forever? Or are you arguing that we will take pay cuts? Either way you are wrong. A fair comment would be that negotiations with indigo will likely prove to be slow and painful. They are shrewd business men and they won't give away the house in the next contract. Duh. However something along the lines of "industry standard" is a fair expectation.

Anyhow, the point I'm trying to convey is that when choosing an airline for a career, you have to look beyond the current contract. Careers are long, contracts are short. Ours is amendable in 2 years, I don't retire for more than 30 years. I look at frontier as an airline with room to grow, and a business model that likely will become a mainstay in the domestic market.

A little bit confused by this post Barley. It sounds like you're saying, if you were looking to get hired today, Southwest is a no-brainer over F9. But then it also kinda sounds like you'd advocate vacating F9 at any stage of longevity for WN.

Which is it? or is it both? :);):D