Theaveragejoker

Did you know that there are contract companies that service the social media presence of other companies?

MellowedOut

That’s really the only thing that can explain this clown. While I am all for seeing less negativity on APC, this guy is a total joke and may need to lay off the medication and happy pills.

SpeedyG2

Guys this may have been asked many times before pardon me for that
I have to commute (move) no matter which regional I chose post covid what are your thought on
Piedmont vs Skywest got offers from both almost training start date similar
Flow to AA is making decision hard
Please share your opinions thoughts greatly appreciate
Thanks

reandld

The flow is indeed a thing of beauty that needs to be seriously considered when picking a regional airline. The Legacy carriers will increasingly rely on their Wholly Owned airlines to feed their larger aircraft at the hubs. Those at a non-WO'd will be left holding the bag.

That said, if you live on the West Coast, Skywest may be the better option. If you live anywhere east of, say, Chicago, then Piedmont is undoubtedly the better choice.

MellowedOut

Forget about the flow unless you have something really bad or more than a couple of failures on your record. The pilot shortage is real and even FO’s’s will begin getting hired away from regionals by the legacies way before you would flow. The flow is a backup plan for people with questionable things on their records or lacking confidence in their abilities to keep a clean training record at the regionals. Go for QOL and try to avoid commuting. Right now avoid Piedmont. If you really need the flow, go to PSA. Wait to hear from them if you have to.

Freighthotdog

First off, congratulations on getting a job offer from Piedmont airlines. Piedmont pilots carry a great reputation throughout the industry for being the ones who step up and man the guns when AA needs flying covered.

Skywest is a great choice if you want to live on the west coast. However, piedmont would be my choice without a doubt if I were in your shoes. Flow. Embraer 145. Great schedules. Philly base. Charlotte base. Did anyone mention flow?

EAFF95

If I could go back in time I would have chosen other opportunities over Piedmont. Skywest is the real deal. Trust in yourself to be hired, the only people staying at skywest are people that want to stay there.

At Piedmont you will not upgrade fast, you will not build time as fast as your peers, and your QOL is below even regional average. 76 seater flying means more time with the door closed and more time racking up hours, pay, and days off which adds up over your 3-5 years at a regional that you will not get at Piedmont.

QOL may seem trivial when you are trying to keep your eyes on the prize of getting to a major airline, but once you get into the slog you either get stockholm syndrome at Piedmont or the oppressive QOL eventually snuffs out your desire to be an airline pilot.

The flow is the best conceived recruitment tool in the history of airlines.

There are rats on this forum that will try and get you to gloss over those facts, do not let recruiters/management/trolls convince you that these are not important.

If flow is everything, PSA>Envoy.

60av8tor

I would never attempt to talk anyone into Piedmont over Skywest - or anyone else right now for that matter - but I’m sure a bunch of Skywest folks would disagree with your statement.

Thedude86

This is a long, but mostly informational post about Piedmont compared to the rest of the regionals. I honestly don’t mean this in a negative way or a chance to bash anyone at Piedmont as I have several friends that have worked and still work there. This is simply meant to be informational for potential new hires. I’m currently at PSA so this is from a PSA perspective, but I also have a decent understanding of life at Piedmont from reading these forums and also talking to current Piedmont pilots over the years.

In my opinion, quality of life at Piedmont is easily the lowest of the AA wholly owneds and most likely the lowest of all other regionals as well. If it was close, then maybe the faster flow at Piedmont might be worth it. But in my opinion, the QOL differences are substantial. First, reserve sucks pretty much everywhere so I’m not going to touch on that. Once you’re a line holder though, its a completely night and day difference and almost like working for a totally new company. Ive read even the senior pilots at Piedmont will only credit around 75 hours each month with only 11-12 days off a month. At PSA, if i only want 75 hours i will easily have 16-17 days off a month. This month for example I started with 78 hours (before premium pay factored in, more info to come later) and 17 days off while only working one Sunday. I commute from the midwest and all my trips are commutable. No hotels needed. Even if I was junior and got the crappiest line I would still have 15-16 days off after our SAP. If I was junior and also willing to work the weekends I could still get 16-17 days off. So basically every month a junior line holder at PSA will have almost a WHOLE WEEK OFF MORE than even a senior pilot at Piedmont while crediting the exact same. You could literally commute from Hawaii or even Western Europe for PSA and still be home more than a senior pilot at Piedmont who lives in base. To put that into perspective, over a year’s time a PSA junior line holder will have 2-3 more months off at home than a senior Piedmont pilot. Let’s say things go back to normal and pilots spend an average of 5-6 years at a regional before moving on. Over that time span, a piedmont pilot will have spent a whole YEAR more away from home than someone at PSA. And honestly, if you went to Skywest, Endeavor, or Republic your days off will probably be even greater as their trip credits are usually higher than even PSA. And again, that’s just in a 5-6 year time span. Just think of all the traveling, or anything else you could dream of doing with another whole YEAR off.

Also, if the APC rates on here are correct… FOs make the same, but Captain pay is $10-$12 higher at PSA. So basically a PSA pilot will have another whole YEAR at home doing whatever they want, while also making about an extra $900 per month or $11,000 a year as a Captain. And that’s just with crediting 75 hours. You can work more if you want. At PSA you earn 125% above 75 hours, and 150% above 85 hours. Ive heard of triple premium at Piedmont but this is contingent on staffing. We have critical pay at PSA which is 150%, but also contingent on staffing. Now that flying is coming back, I would guess triple premium and critical pay will become more common once again. My understanding though, and correct me if I’m wrong, but triple premium at Piedmont is day by day and you have to add the flying to your current schedule. Critical pay at PSA is trip touching. So basically as long as one day is critical… the whole trip pays critical. And its also very possible to trade a regular trip for a critical trip so your number of days off stay the same. For example, this month my regular credit started at 78 hours and 17 days off, but I worked a critical trip earlier this month. I will admit this involves luck sometimes, but I have a decent understanding of the contract and was able to plan for critical ahead of time. Now I still have 17 days off, but now I’m at 110 hours of pay. If i want to, i could drop 2 days later this month and ill be at 19 days off and still credit 100 hours. I understand you can’t always plan for triple premium or critical pay, but the core argument is that even if you just fly 75 hours and don’t do anything else you will still enjoy a whole YEAR off more at PSA or even several other airlines while also earning $11,000 more per year as a captain.

One last point is that Ive heard people say, “well ill just deal with the suck and I’m willing to work more at Piedmont just so i can boost my logbook and apply to the majors sooner.” This doesn’t make any sense to me. I mean yea, you’ll be gone more at Piedmont but that doesn’t translate to more hours in your logbook. If you’re willing to be stuck with only 12 days off you’re entire career at a regional then why wouldn’t you just go to PSA, Skywest, Endeavor, or Republic and put 90-100 hours in your logbook every month compared to just 75 hours at Piedmont? And actually, you would probably still have 13-14 days off at PSA once you hit your 100 hour flight time limit.

EAFF95

Take the pandemic which destroyed hiring for over a year out of the equation and I still stand by my statement.

Let me qualify my statement further. I'm sure there are FO's with 2500TT that dream of leaving, but if you are qualified to be hired by a major you will have opportunities, and you'll get qualified a hell of a lot faster than with the hours you'll get at Piedmont.

It took me over 2 years to get enough hours to upgrade at Piedmont, and that was before the bottom end of the list sat reserve for months on end.