a weird transition
 

the situation: I'm currently working as a dispatcher at a LCC while on unpaid medical leave from a regional airline where i worked as a pilot. I got my dispatcher certificate because I wanted to keep my head in the game, so to speak, while i was waiting for my medical to clear. I'm nearly 2 years out of currency but have some part 121 PIC time and 2 types. I just got my medical certificate back. I need to make a decision and I'm inclined to make the most ethical one even if, at least for the first 2 years, its the less lucrative choice.

Option 1; go back to my regional where I would have seniority, hold a line, fly as PIC in the E175, and make a lot more money. I would leave the LCC.

Option 2; accept a class date at my current employer, get an airbus type and take a big pay cut to live in random crew bases that few other airlines fly to. I would leave the regional.

Option 3; apply to other airlines that I would ultimately want to go (the big 3 legacies and WN) despite not being current.

I understand that the industry hiring trend that legacies follow seem to favor pilots with narrow body types from LCCs more than the classic 1000 hour PIC regional captains. With that in mind it makes the choice fairly easy, but letting go of a $160k/yr job for a $56k/year job flying an Airbus is a hard pill to swallow. There is also the risk of getting stuck in regional airline purgatory waiting for the call from the dream job that may never come. My regional does have a kind of "flow through agreement" with its parent company that I would be eligible for but its not exactly the most desirable long-term plan.

what would be the best path forward from here to a legacy carrier?

3600 TT
1400 turbine (mostly turboprop)
200 part 121 PIC
only 1 checkride failure (121 recurrent)
no degree.
no DUIs
below age 40

Any advice would be appreciated!

Any time you can go to a real airline that sells it's own tickets, take that opportunity over any subcontractor.

Do you think you’d pass training back at your regional? Whichever path you choose I’d suggest getting up in the air prior to starting training.

Don’t do allegiant…you just need 100 hours or so to get current again before you can blast off to a legacy. We’re hiring basically everyone now

Apply WHEREVER YOU WOULD BE WILLING TO WORK. It’s up to them to say no if they don’t want you. GO WITH THE BEST OPTION THAT WILL TAKE YOU. IF THEY AREN'T YOUR DESIRED OPTION, KEEP APPLYING TO THE OTHERS.

3. Fail? 2. Something wonky? 1.

Go to an LCC (preferably not Allegiant), get the type, then apply to a legacy.

Enjoy a 30 year career at the legacy.

Nobody cares if you have the type rating from the "ULCC."

You have a chance to go straight back to a captain position making more money and you already have a seniority number. Go there, and apply to the carrier of your choice

It's axiomatic: bird in the hand, vs. the bush; but if all three options are available, take the bird in the hand. The only thing the carrier that you're working for tight now offers is a different type airplane (not a big deal). Option 3 is applying to airlines: you can do that while you're earning a living just as easily as you can when not current and not earning captain pay.

There's nothing magical about a "ULCC," or the type rating you'd get. The only operator that ever required you to be type rated to apply was SWA, and that went away a long time ago. I knew a number of sad sacks that bought a type in their fog of shiny jet syndrome and never got hired. The poverty-carrier won't make you look more attractive and the type won't make you more desirable. Don't do that unless it's an itch you must scratch.

Option 1, you’re off probation at your regional and have an iffy track record in 121 training. Don’t go into an operations initial qual non flight current and get fired. Get back upto speed and apply elsewhere.

the airbus itch. Haha!

I have no deep desire to get typed in an A320, only to then be based in some random domicile that’s next to impossible to commute to. It’s hard to shake the feeling that I would be taking a step backwards going back to the regional I came from, but adjusted for inflation I would be making LESS than I did as a year 1 FO at my regional back in 2018. The lower cost of living in some of these bases isn’t enough to offset the low first year pay scale.

I appreciate the feedback!

That’s a really good point. I’m not prone to failing check events but there is always the likelihood. If I fail initial I would go right back to my seniority position in dispatch, which would be ok economically, but humiliating personally. The more I think about that the worse it gets!

That’s a really, really good point..

Generally I'd say go back to the regional, given current pay scales and your seniority.

However... legacies are currently metering hiring from their affiliated regionals, a lot.

If your regional is AA only, great, apply to DL and UA. But if your regionals flies for 2 or 3 legacies, then you should do some research on the state of metering, and also consider which legacies you'd prefer.

All the legacies will hire from 2nd tier/ULCC without any reservations. You already punched the PIC ticket, even if only briefly, but that's more than many legacy new hires can say right now. Given your background a fresh NB type and a few hundred hours online should get their attention.

There's also something to be said for going back to a plane you already know, returning after that long of an absence is not trivial (nut two years is better than ten years).

Don't sell yourself short on how much being a dispatcher will add to your resume. I'd stay at your current employer, get current, and should have no issues getting interviews at any major.

Something that I haven't seen mentioned is... Theres something to be said about showing loyalty to an airline as well as upward career progression, I would say it generally would look good on paper in future interviews if you stay at the current ULCC and become a pilot there. If nothing else it would be a positive talking point in an interview.

I'll add a counterpoint regarding your training history; Completing initial new hire training with no further issues at a new airline would show future employers that the training failure is in the past and not something to worry about.

I’ve unfortunately seen the struggle from both new hires who weren’t flight current and Captains transitioning fleets and returning from long term LOA. When the new hires struggled they got ****canned after a couple of extra sim events. The Captains got sent to extra training as much as needed to get them back onto the line. There was quite the spread difference.. most extreme was a NH cut after 2 added sims, and a Captain getting 30 sims. I’d give the same advice to anyone who’s already off probation in your situation. No hiring department really cares about how many add sims you’ve had or how much additional OE hours it takes to get you onto the line. They definitely care about failed check ride events and training terminations. Racking up those will hamper your career progression more than going back to your previous regional vs getting a new type rating.

While this is true and not insignificant, and I could be wrong about this, but the loyalty could go either way; weather I go back to my old regional or stay at my LCC. union loyalty isn't an issue at all since, coincidentally, both work groups at both airlines are part of the same union.

The perceived upward progression you mentioned seems like a big deal, but the extent to which HR departments at legacies think of it as a big deal is what I'm trying to feel out. That would be the ONLY thing about staying at the LCC has going for it since pay, QOL, travel benefits... virtually everything else about staying sucks.

staying seems like buying the nicest house in the worst neighborhood in town. at this point it seems like a "shiny object" that doesn't have the value that I initially thought it did.

My regional is WO, just not owned by American. its not hard to deduce which regional that is. Delta LOVES hiring from our regional and I would be more than happy to accept an interview with them if ever offered the opportunity.

if we were talking about NK or f9 LCCs, then I would be 1000% onboard with what you're saying. But adjusted for inflation the hourly wage here is dead-nuts on what my hourly was at my regional in 2018, and that's with a lesser min guarantee of 70 hours a month here flying the bus vs 75 hours a month at the regional. living in base on that wage back in 2018 was not a good time.

Loyalty to the union means nothing. It's not an issue at all. You pay them. They don't pay you. Whatever shop you land in, the union is there, and you pay dues. In your case, you've indicated it's the same union (same local?), but it really doesn't matter. There are no brownie points for staying any longer, regardless of what morale pins you might get for being with them a little longer.

Loyalty to the airline is really irrelevant. You're a seniority number. There are no points for "loyalty." You're not planning on staying long term at either one, so loyalty is not remotely relevant.

There's a perception, quite false, that a pilot flying for a "ULCC" is somehow closer to god than the pilot at the regional, and thus more likely to be blessed by the sacred minions at the legacy lands of nirvana. Not so. The legacy carrier isn't impressed by an airbus type. They're not impressed by a dispatcher certificate, or other certification; it's not like they're hiring you because you'd be a great fall-back to their dispatch if things don't work out. They're hiring you as a pilot. If you go to the legacy, you'll fly what they tell you to fly, and you'll go through the training regardless of what you've flown before. If you have no type in their equipment, it doesn't matter, because they'll type you. If you hold a type for what they fly, then you've still got to undergo the training, anyway.

The recruiter wants to know if you will be a good investment. They're going to invest in you the same amount of money regardless of where you come from, and regardless of your type rating. The only place that loyalty will make a difference, and it's not really loyalty but simply being present, is flow, and that may be available, or may not.

Given that there are a LOT of regional pilots applying to the legacy carriers, one might say that what you need is a way to distinguish yourself. An added type rating might be a way to do that, but it's not as flashy as all that (and chips). I've got a wallet full of certificates and a few types along the way, and that plus a few bucks won't buy a cup of coffee. It doesn't impress anybody. In my opinion, what will distinguish you isn't checking more boxes ("ULCC," airbus type, etc), but advancing yourself. Dispatcher, vs. captain. First Officer, vs. Captain. Captain, then while waiting, perhaps check airman. Check airman at a regional is a worth a lot more than First Officer in an airbus at a poverty carrier. I don't think anyone will care if you showed "loyalty" to your current operator, or to the regional. Nobody will fault you if you do either one. I don't think either will hold you back, but given the higher wages at the regional, and returning to a captain position, personally the regional would probably sound better.

Ask yourself this: the business and the decisions of where to go and what to do are always made with an eye to where you'll be and what you'll be doing if the music quits. You don't want to be somewhere and be furloughed, obviously, but we don't really control that (or anything else)...but ask yourself what happens if the music stops and you have to stay in your seat. If the industry slows to a standstill and the legacies stop absorbing new hires, if the plan to move on doesn't pan out for the forseeable future, would you be better off at the regional, or the low cost carrier? If you took the airbus job and then got stuck, would you regret not going back to the captain position, in base, at the regional?

It's great to add a type; to stay in the practice of learning a new aircraft and doing that dance (it gets old when you get a little older: trust me), and it doesn't hurt to have more squiggles on the little plastic card in your wallet or on your resume. It doesn't really help a lot, either, unless you need to practice training for a new type that you may or may not use much (I'm the patron saint of useless type ratings...aircraft nobody flies any more and that will never get used again. They're memories, but it's hard to buy groceries on memories). You can buy groceries with a higher wage and money saved by living in base, though...so there's that.

Practical, vs. gee-whiz, I guess.

Go to the regional. Go get trained back up and get some proficiency back on the line. I would not want to go into new hire training cold.

You'll earn a good paycheck and you'll fly an easy plane that you already know, with good seniority and not a bad contract.

If things hold together I bet you make it to a legacy faster than if you went the ULCC route.