Direct entry captain: to go or not to go??
 

Direct entry captain: to go or not to go??

While they’re all dangling the carrot of 45K sign on CA bonuses.

You’re 7 months into employment with what everyone calls a “bottom” feeder regional. You’re experience allows you to upgrade but you can’t hold the seniority and it’s so unpredictable. You’re desperate for TPIC since you have 0, coming back from time off from flying and need to advance ASAP to get to your dream job to enjoy maybe 20 or so yrs. You need the left seat $$.

It’s Reserve for life no matter staying put at your current company or moving on. You’ll commute no matter the company.
Work rules are so much better at anywhere else vs your bottom feeder. So you hope. IE: you don’t get commuter hotels, commuter clause is terrible, DH is not 100%, pay/per diem is lowest, now real effective “flow” which is used as a terrible recruiting scheme. No incentive to continue doing this for anymore SIC time.

Do you jump ship to:
1-Piedmont
2-Commutair
3-GoJet
4-Or any other regional hiring day one/two into the left seat?
5-Stay put and wait your number while saying this place bites in all ways.

Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant.

I'd be doing whatever possible to get out of the regional game, not move to a different corner of it.

A valid strategy, but it depends on a person’s goals. A lot of legacy recruiters will tell people that they still prefer TPIC time over a new Airbus type rating.

Where the hell are you if those 3 options are a step up?

Not say you’re not trying, but no one is knocking.
I’d give the LLC or lower end cargo advice to any low time SIC, young FO, newbie. But with over 5k total and 3500+ 121 SIC turbine, 2 or more years of SIC time in an airbus at an LLC isn’t going to do much except say “where your TPIC? That’s a lot of time and but that’s great, you’ve got an A319 type”. In a recent job fair every recruiter questioned.... “so never been a captain...?”

This isn’t a thread about going LLC?

Can you only imagine!? :eek:

Spirit and Frontier have relatively short upgrade times, under 5 years, with a lot of planned growth. I'd rather make more money as a young FO at a LCC than a CA at a regional. Continue to try for the legacies while at an LCC, and know that if you never make it, you still have a much better job and work rules than a regional.

I mean, there's no way I'd make a lateral to any of those 3.

So if it sucks where you are and will suck where you're going to go, then you might as well get TPIC and paid, right? This is assuming you wouldn't be taking a pay cut as a DEC, bonus aside.

CommutAir is probably the best bet of the ones that you listed, only insomuch that CPP is a plus if you qualify.

That's not advice that I'd give to many, but it kinda sounds like you're answering your own question there.

You are going to hate life for a very long time while you sit a few years on Reserve in New York while seeing FO after FO upgrade and immediately jump ahead of you in CA seniority. Honestly, I cannot imagine why someone would move laterally to upgrade. The few months quicker upgrade and bonus money is not worth that kind of prolonged pain.