I really liked the length of reserve. It's like years of never knowing where you're going to sleep every night. HOW EXCITING.

I had offers at Mesa, Republic, Envoy and SkyWest. I went with SkyWest because of domicile selection, PAY and company reputation/quality of life. All this in comparison to the other 3. I would have had to commute with Envoy (PHX). Mesa was a no go because of pay (or lack thereof) & quality of life. Republic was a no due to domicile, pay, reputation & quality of life.

Have a long road ahead but this is helpful to guys like me who are hoping to be in the industry. Thanks for this man.

Movement. I rather spend my 3-~ years in a regional being able to support my family

It was a combo of factors for me. Mostly Base, movement & contract.

Base: Commuting sucks & moving is expensive..

Movement: Personally, I would be willing to give up some contract & pay for movement, but not so much so that if the quick upgrade does not pan out that I will be stuck in a miserable place. Also, movement isn't just about upgrade time... How long is it going to take to hold a line? How quickly can you get far enough up the seniority list to have some buffer if the economy tanks and airlines furlough?

Contract: I wouldn't want to be at a regional with a bottom of the barrel contract. I feel there is a big difference from the top end of the spectrum to the bottom. The places in the middle have alright contracts and I was willing to give up a 'top contract' place in order to live in base and, hopefully, only be on reserve for a few months at the most.

Pay: First year pay seems to hover in the low 20's pretty much across the board, so not much of a differentiating factor.

Flow: seems nice if it actually happens. In general, it seems that flow-throughs have so much fine print that not that many pilots actually end up benefiting from them.

Equipment: IMHO, a jet is a jet.

Combo but mostly these 2 things:

1) Domicile/Base. While it can be foolish to pick a regional based on a domicile (some regionals seem to open and close bases fairly regularly) for me it was a "no-brainer". I live somewhere that I'm going to be commuting no matter what, so why not pick an airline that will provide me with the ability to have a commutable schedule and a 1 leg commute? Makes life easier.

2) Movement. Chasing a "quick upgrade" can come back to bite you, but if you go somewhere that is adding airplanes combined with attrition from the top of their list, you should be in a good position.

Base location, company reputation, and upgrades. In that order kinda. Company reputation and base location were equally important to me.

This is an incomplete sentence, boy. Plus, sentences start with capital letters, boy.

So...chasing a quick upgrade, then.


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Base > contract > reputation.... Living where I work has made this job tolerable. Had I been needing to commute all this time, I would have long ago quit.