Regional minimum contract commitment times?
 

Newbie question. As a retiring AF pilot with 1400ish hours (F-15 guy by trade), if I pick up a job with a regional to get past the 1500 bar minimum (I can retire in December), am I always committed by contract for a certain time, or would I be free to move up to the majors should they call. Does anyone know the typical length of times for the higher paying regional airlines? I'm having a difficult time researching the answer online. Recommendations welcome. Thanks.

Where are you currently stationed? And what regional(s) are you looking at?

Bail at any time.

The only current contracts are for sign-on bonuses.

Even then, you would only owe them the sign-on bonus. Financially it may be worth it to pay them back.

Short answer: No contracts. Employee at will.

Go to a carrier that doesn't have any contract. Endeavor has no contract, gives a 3k bonus at the end of training, and 6.6k bonus every 4 months after that for the first year.

I don't know of any regionals that have a training contract anymore. I think Compass may have been the last one, and that went away last summer.

You can feel free to quit at any time with no obligation. I know of military bros who finished training, updated AirlineApps with their new type rating and 121 training program completion, received interviews and job offers within a month, and were gone from their regional within 2 months of finishing training.

I thought Mesa was the only one with a training contract, but I could be wrong.

I believe this is true. Mesa is the only company that will require you to sign a training contract that you will need to pay back. There are many better options.

From my RAH offer letter

Your retention of the Signing Bonus is contingent upon your successful completion of the Republic Airlines First Officer training program and 2 years' service with the Company. Should you resign, fail to complete ground school, systems or simulator instruction, or be discharged for cause within 2 years' from your start date, you will be required to repay the prorated amount of the Signing Bonus based on your accrued service at the time of separation.

Thank you for your service!

This^^^... I'd go to Endeavor, get current, make a little extra bonus money, and get your apps out at the legacies or wherever you want to go. Couple military guys in my class at PSA did this a couple years ago and they were gone within 6 months. One to Delta as soon as he finished his check ride in the sim and one to JetBlue a few months after. And worst case scenario you get stuck at Endeavor for a bit you're still collecting bonus money without a training contract.

It's too bad you even need to go to a regional

Thanks guys! Follow up question since I am more encouraged to punch out and run to Endeavor (although I see they offer a guaranteed interview program w/Delta but that would probably put me in a long line....?). Any recommendations for logistics? I want to settle the family in Atlanta or Greenville, SC, but I hear commuting for the regionals is a no-go/nightmare. I don't want to move my entire household of 5 to Minneapolis just to have to move again in less than a year. Should I just treat it like a deployment and expect to live out of a crash pad in MN? Ideas? Experience?

If you don't already have your ATP most regionals will require you to either stay (~18 months) or pay back their costs. Usually around $3000.
I'm a military guy who retired non current and am at endeavor right now. Commuting from Greenville would probably not be an issue at all. Commuting through Atl as a regional guy is not the best of scenarios, but doable for the short term. The Delta guaranteed interviews wouldn't apply to you unless you're planning on staying at endeavor for 3-4 years. But you can still get hired OTS (off the street). Feel free to pm me if you have specific questions.


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NOG,

PM sent re: commuting/QOL. For the crowd, I already have the ATP. I'm slowing being convinced to take the leap....thanks for the advice.

You should put apps in with the majors anyway having F-15 time. You only need 750 for military to get the ATP. Also, I think commutair flys into Greenville. We're growing and this would likely be your best bet based on that alone. Hit me up via PM and you can call me and I'll tell you anything you wanna know. I'm a reserve military pilot myself.

Commuting is perfectly doable, just not ideal. If you live close to an airport serviced my mainline jets yet not a hub for any of the majors, it makes it easy. If you have to two leg it, or depend on regionals that aren't your own metal, forget it.

Agreed, but something else to think about some routes change from mainline to regional and back.

This. Skip the regionals if you can

What regional are you talking about that has a $3,000 training contract?

If you want to live in GSP one could make an argument for PSA. You'll get stuck in DAY or CVG to start with, but eventually getting CLT wouldn't be an issue. Driving to work makes up for the lower pay.

There is a 2 year commitment for the $15,000 new hire bonus, although it's prorated in the second year. You could take it and bank it, then throw yourself a really big party after you pass two years with the company. 1st year pay does suck, although having a military retirement would soften that blow.

I know endeavor contracted the younger guys in my class that didn't have their ATP and got it through the company program. They said it was $3000 that they have to pay back if they don't stay 18 months. Was just talking to one of them about it last night.

Not sure of the other regionals. And again it only applies to guys doing the ATP course.


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So horrible...:rolleyes::eek:

I thought working for a regional built character?!


Seriously. A short stint at any regional would be good prep for the mainline job. There are soooo many differences from military flying to 121 flying that it can be a tad overwhelming at first. 6-12 months at a regional is a good thing. Trust me.

If you can move to base, do it. The loss/headache/PIA in moving again for a Major is more then made up in QOL of living in base at a regional.

Also Endeavor may not be the quickest way to DL for you, just a thought.

Great Lakes has a $7500 training contract.

If I were in your shoes, I would solely pick a regional that will offer the best QOL. Pick one that has a base close to where you live so you can live out of base-do not commute if you can help it! Being stuck on reserve, in crashpads isn't fun and takes up a lot of time when you could be at home on your days on-call doing your own thing.

I say this losely, but I highly doubt you'll be at a regional long. I've known a ton of military guys and very few of them are in a regional longer than a year. Seems like most get the job right around the time they pass IOE or shortly thereafter...good luck!

I wholesale disagree.

For a career military guy who has all ready moved his family 8-10 times in the previous 20 years, it is a no-brainer to settle the family where they want to stay and suck up the temporary pain of a commute to a relatively short-term regional job. The "moving every 2-3 years" lifestyle really starts to get old, especially as the kids are school aged and you have to pull them away from their friends repeatedly. So, the perspective is the opposite: the pain of the commute is offset by the happiness of the family not ever having to move again if they don't want to. Happy wife, happy life.

Possibly just as important, the military pays for one move at retirement -- not two.

If you get a job at Endeavor, you won't need to worry about MSP (other than training and they provide single occ. hotel) Right now all new hires are going to LGA/JFK... I don't see that changing at least til next spring as there is now a backlog of guys wanting to get out to DTW/MSP as there have been no openings there with the NYC CRJ-200 base buildup. (there are 10 DTW 900 FO openings on the current bid but those won't be there for a new hire, good news is many DTW and MSP FO's have job offers at Delta and will start leaving next month)

Most of us thought the same thing in 2007. Nothing is guaranteed.

Just curious how many times over the last 20 years you've moved your family for your job?

These things are of paramount importance to career military families. The ability for mom 'n' the kids to live where they want to live, for as long as they want, after two decades of living 2-3 years at a time wherever Uncle Sam says to live is a massive quality of life issue.

If the music stops and the majors stop hiring, then that's a different decision to make down the road...but given the reality of the hiring picture today, this month, and the rest of this year, it is folly to blow your retirement move going to a regional base.

9 moves in 10 years. And over that 10 year period I probably got a extra 2 years of time at home by not commuting

For comparison, the commuting lifestyle affords substantially more time at home than the deployment schedule most military pilots have been on for the last decade.

But remember, it doesn't count because you weren't in a volunteer military...:rolleyes:

Nobody mentioned that besides you.

I was asking because I was interested in his frame of reference. I'm surprised, honestly. I would not have moved annually chasing jobs, so good on his wife and kids for stomaching that.

Sorry misread the original post hence my deletion.

My kids are young.
It's my advice based on my experience.
Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Moving is a short term pain but pays dividends if you end up stuck for longer then expected. Don't let anyone fool you. Commuting to a regional job blows, if you're on reserve it'll drive you insane.

Not fooled by anything anyone's said. I all ready did my time commuting to a regional job (and reserve....) and later moved on to my career destination.

This discussion has actually been helpful. While a tend to lean toward Hacker's get the family settled solution, I'm really hoping to find something where I could also be home-based. I like ExpressJet because we would be happy in ATL. And I like PSA because we like CLT. But EJ is sounding a bit un-stable and I would be on reserve forever (would I get the hours I need to be competitive for majors?). And PSA would take me out of the running for a quick pull to AA (AA in CLT would let me drive to work from my desired homestead) and I'd have to be based elsewhere for a while first.

BL: I see both points and I am trying to weigh them both. I would be willing to pay for the extra move. I have 20 moves under my belt, so while a couple more wouldn't kill me, I sure would like to find a gig where I don't have to move the kids again, especially if I can move my self-sacrificing wife to the town she's wanted to move back to since we were married.