Undecided on a Regional
 

I've talked to Endeavor, Go Jet, Air Wisconsin and Envoy at a job fair. I had a great conversation with Go Jet and Endeavor feeling very good about both.

I'm undecided on Air Wisconsin who just today has invited me to interview with them next week in an email.

Any feed back on any of these companies would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

I visited a Panda Express and Curritos, also McDonald's is giving me the good feelings too. Which should I get? I'm very much undecided. Any feedback would be great.

Where do you live? What is your goal? Are you going to be commuting? Do you care about a flow? Do you care about the planes they fly? Do you have a college degree? These are all things that you need to ask yourself. Going and talking to a bunch of recruiters at a job fair, they're all going to sell you the same story of why they're the best and why you should come there because there is so much growth right now and upgrades are X years.

I suggest you go through these forums and start reading what people have been saying. Also, look at their profiles on this website and start comparing benefits, pay packages, schedules, bases etc. And with regards to AWAC inviting you to interview... they all will invite you to interview, any regional out there.

Go to gojet or awac, trust me, both are the "best regionals" that will get you to delta the fastest.

You have no decisions to make until you have a job offer in hand.

Anyone except gojet or mesa.

Hands down Panda Express

Seriously?

You need to understand what the job of a recruiter is....to recruit.
Ask yourself what you want or be and what the best match is short term and long term.
If you don't have a college degree then it won't make sense to go somewhere with flow to an Airline that requires a degree. Unless you plan on getting that while working.
I've always been told not to pick based on a type and what have I always done? Picked a type ;)

Where do you live, or want to live? Answer that question and work backwards from there.

None of the above. Definitely go to chipotle.

Go somewhere that allows you to live in base.

In your shoes, I would interview at my top 3 choices.

Just apply straight to majors. Let the regionals die off.

Depends....I feel we need to know more about the previous weeks diet to make an informed decision. Also, we need to know how close the nearest bathroom is.
Please see above.
You are dumb. And wrong. You're du-rong.

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Hey tiger, calm form with that noise. Some of us NEED the regionals

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For the love of God...

1) Whatever regional allows you to live in base

2) As long as it's not Mesa

3) Or XJet (great pilot group but I fear that company is not long for this world)

Do we really need to keep having these 'what regional?!?' discussions?

So you recommend that the dudes with 1,500 hours and a wet ATP apply to the majors and skip the regionals? How well d'you think that'll work out for them?

Truth is, the kind of jobs you could once get flying ME aircraft, for hire, have largely gone the way of the dodo. Check carrying, auto part delivery...those jobs hardly exist anymore. Sure, there's Amflight, but the days when thousands of guys could go fly checks in a clapped-out San Antonio Sewer Pipe for the ME turbine time are long gone...

Like it or hate it, there are pretty much only 2 options these days to go from the right seat of a 172 to the right seat of a major. And that's the regionals.

None of those airlines have orders for the E2-175.

Don't discount part 135 operators. Better QOL, better pay, plus you won't ***** yourself out like at the regionals. You can jump ship to a good LCC or legacy once you have the time.

Rule #1: Treat airline recruiters like military recruiters. They'll tell you all of the good, and none of the bad. It's their job to get you to sign on the dotted line.

Rule #2: Avoid commuting if at all possible for a regional.

Rule #3: Do not pick an airline based upon what planes they fly. E145, 175, CRJ, no major cares what kind of regional jet you flew.

Rule #4: Look at the referral incentives the airlines are offering their employees. They're basically turning their pilots into paid recruiters. Take what pilots say with a grain of salt for that exact reason.

Rule #5: Go to the place that will get you gone the fastest. Your goal is mainline, not a regional. However, if the music stops, try to be somewhere you can tolerate.

I'm at 9E. It's improved significantly since the BK and merge, but it still is lousy in comparison to any major. All regionals suck compared to the majors. Get in, move out.

Wow is it 2007 again? This thread is giving me serious deja vu. It reminds me of when I had interview offers from 6 regionals and I was 22 and already planning out whether I would want to live in a Northwest or Continental base.

I decided to go to a place that had a decent (for a regional) reputation "just in case I get stuck". Which is good because I did get stuck and ended up being there for 9 years.

I went for Panda Express thanks.

Better QOL? Better pay? Maybe at Netjets, but anyone with just 1,500 hours is likely to wind up at a shady 135 op where each airplane has more deferrals than seats. Or the places that pay you essentially nothing to 'build jet time' in the right seat of a clapped-out Lear 24 (God help us) but won't pay for your type rating, or...Oh man, I could go on and on. One outfit near me operates C-525s and puts guys in the right seat without even an SIC type, since it 'looks better' to the pax. But the aircraft is SP certified, so the poor loser in the right seat is really a flight attendant, pooper scooper, and general peon, and can't log any of the time.

For every great 135 op, there are 10 like the ones above. I earned my first ticket back in 1990 and have spent most of my life in GA, and believe me... The bottom-most regional is light years better than most 135 ops when it comes to pay and QOL.

Can't agree more. Flying into icing with no anti-ice is always a good reminder why I left 135 and NEVER looked back.

You guys get crew meals?

They offered Banquet meals but we shot it down.

Not long ago I jumpseated on Kalitta and the crew meal was from Denny's. Tasty, but how do those guys not gain 50 lbs working there?

Yes, you're right. I was thinking more along the lines of NJA, FlexJet, JetSuite, DPJ. I suppose if the OP has 1500 hours then that's out of the question.

Trend item - you're a ****ing prick that has offered exactly nothing to a single conversation in the past 2.5 months.

Seriously. Nothing.

You win the internets today. Congratulations.

Still haven't, even if you're right.

Though, as internet King, I grant 1/2 point for a hint of a sense of humor.

Thanks a lot.

I am generous. And kind.

And probably the most humble person I know.

Gojet and Mesa are the places to go, without doubt. Don't even look at the others. Each has just signed flow through agreements with Auschwitz Air, no interview.

There is a rule when dealing with recruiters, the nicer they are the more they intend to destroy your life. Have you done anything to research these airlines? Based upon the evidence you might want to do a little more research. What are the reputations of the airlines, their owners, the chief pilot and DO? What types of lawsuits have been filed by employees? What do their training departments look like? Do they even do their own training or do they have to farm it out to flight safety?

Don't go to an airline that does not have planes on order unless you want to sit in the right seat for a long time. But wait, airline X has no new planes coming but they are hiring into the left seat or only have a 6 month upgrade wait? Be sure to ask the next question, what is happening to the guys above, why are they leaving so fast?

There is no substitute for quality in this industry. You do not want to have a low quality carrier on your resume. When a Skywest pilot walks into a Delta interview he already looks good. When a pilot from a bottom feeder airline walks in he spends the first 15 minutes explaining to the interviewer the unique circumstances of why going to a bottom feeder was such a great decision. Kind of like someone explaining what a great job he did in saving the airplane after he flew into the thunderstorm but cannot really justify flying into the thunderstorm in the first place.

Wrong.... Pay and QOL at some of the regionals is now much better than 135 operators. The 121 CREW experience is vital too. Don't get me wrong, I liked 135 and flew for a few of them, but things have changed drastically and majors like prior 121 crew experience.

It doesn't matter. You can try and tell a new guy that crack is bad for them. He's still going to want to try it.

So true. Imagine you are a Delta pilot interviewing applicants. The first guy who walks in is from Skywest. You know they have high standards in who they hire. You know they have high standards in who makes it through training. You know they have their own training departments that gives the students a full understanding of the plane and the job. You know that they focused on how to properly analyze problems and respond to them. You know the variety of environments the guy has flown into. You know that when the pilot upgraded to Captain that Skywest did not pass him because they needed someone desperately but the guy deserved to be there.

Next walks in the Gojet pilot or the Mesa pilot. Trained by Flight safety. Put into the left seat with no experience at the airline. To some degree the guy placed getting his PIC time ahead of being in a safe environment. But he did survive those first few months, yea! But, did he deserve to be a Captain flying around or did he get there because they were desperate to have a pilot? Maybe he's a great guy and a great pilot? Who do you take?

In walks an Endeavor pilot. Delta won't hire him, because Delta knows he'll do the same job for Delta for 1/3 the price!

You guys don't need to be sarcastic jerks. You were new once too. That's what this board is about. Choosing the right regional is NOT an easy thing to do. You can go back and read 100 pages on any of the regionals' threads and get an equal mixture of: 1) Don't come here, it sucks, 2) I've had a great time here, it's fine if you live in base, 3) ALL regionals suck, go to whoever will upgrade you to captain the fastest, 4) Get a CJO to an AA WO who won't OBR or JM you and I know you don't know *** I'm talking about.

To the original poster: I agree with the guy(/girl) who said to figure out where you want to live, and check the "airline profiles" section to see who has a domicile there, and start there. If you're young and don't have a family and willing to move wherever they send you, then you can worry about other factors.

I also agree with the guys(girls) who said to take anything a recruiter says at a job fair with a grain of salt. Understand what their job is. They may be great guys, but they'd probably get fired if they told you the truth about any big reasons you should avoid their airline. Additionally, the more FOs that come to their airline, the more senior they get comparatively, and the better their lives are.

Skywest is the largest regional, with lots of growth and domiciles, and most people on this site tend to agree that it's a decent place to work, compared to the other regionals. However, they don't have the big first year/signing bonus which can be a LOT of money at some other places.

The American Airlines wholly owneds (Envoy, Piedmont, PSA I believe) have a "flow" program where you get a big leg up into American eventually. The flow is a long ways off though, and most folks feel you're a lot more likely to get hired outside of that "flow" before you ever reach that point, unless you have some nasty skeletons in your closet.

PSA has something called an SAP which basically means that after about a year there, your ability to adjust your schedule to your liking becomes much easier than at any other regional.

Most people on this site tend to feel that your number 1 priority should either be to live in base, or to upgrade as quickly as possible. Regardless of which you think is more important, it's going to take a lot of reading on this site, and posting in the individual airline threads, to feel like you have enough of a handle on the different airlines to make an informed decision.

Good luck.

You can SAP at PSA dang near right out of training at most of our bases and right at 7 months for CLT. It is not a year long wait.