The day you resign.....

 

With that kind of schedule I can understand why a FO would choose to postpone upgrade.

 

That is the typical Eagle schedule for any FO or CA with mid level seniority or higher.

 

Three rules of airline careers:

--Stay married your first wife

--Do NOT commute

--Pay your taxes

That was given to me 30 years ago and still true. Commuting usually results in violation of the other two.

GF

 

I've been holding 17-18 days off with 90+ credit, weekend, holidays and other days I need off. My trips are 20-21 hrs 3 day, 29 hrs 4 day or 15 hrs 2 day, all commutable, and getting done around 6:30 on the last day. I'm bidding in the top 5% as a 5 year FO. This is all by choice. I can do this or be a CA with 12-13 days off and working weekends and holidays.

 

Do all regionals have these kinds of lines for relatively senior FO's and CA's?

 

This year I've had 4 on/3 off for the most part. I live in base and when day trips popped up, I flew those. The past couple months our schedules have sucked. 11-12 days off max, 5 and 6 day trips with 5-6 legs each day, a lot of swapping between afternoon flying one day and AM flying the next. Two days off between trips, or a day trip tagged at the start or end of a sequence. Commuting hell. Next month is no exception. At this point nobody knows what to expect other than get in, get your time and get the heck out asap.

 

1. Get hired.
2. ???
3. Profit!

 

somewhere in there you need underpants!

 

I think best case is a matter of perception and mindset. If you are independent, don't mind traveling, can roll with change, like airplanes and adventure, then this job is never bad. If you like being at home, like set schedules and predictability and really enjoy the company of others.... this job can be hell. I say that because being an airline pilot is more of a lifestyle than a career and if you sign up, hoping to make this job as close to a normal job as possible (day trips, weekends and holidays off, etc) you're taking a pretty big gamble with your sanity.

But, that being said, the conventional answer is (IMHO):

Best case is the company is staffed just right and you have the option to bid high credit or bare minimum. PBS at SkyWest will allow you to bid down to 58.6 hours and still get benefits, so if you can get by on that money, that would equate to about 9-10 days of work per month (where I'm based, MX base, long trips but 3 days pay like 4 days). Conversely you could pick up lots of flying and put money away for whatever.