Wow, some serious venom being spit on this thread. Just felt like I should chime in. I've been with Colgan for about 7 months and actually enjoy it very much. I took this job because I am older, married and have 2 young kids. To me, the benefit of being home every night far outweighs the occasional inconvieniences. I get to see my wife and kids on a regular basis and I live very close to my base, this makes my quality of life very high. Now, if I were 21 years old without children I would probably go for X-jet or one of the other regionals. At this point however, I'm just not willing to be away from home 15-18 days every month. It's not worth it to me.
I just wanted to respond to a previous posters complaints about Colgan.
"Flying to the same 3 or 4 airports every day sucks". This is somewhat true. After a while though, an airport is just an airport. It has runways, taxiways and a ramp area. Rarely is there anything to get very excited about flying into a new airport. If you are admiring the runway layout or the pretty terminal on approach, you are not paying enough attention to your job. Once you leave the airport, you get a van ride to a hotel, which looks the same as every other hotel you've ever been in. You get the same crappy continental breakfast you always get. The next morning, you catch the van back to the airport and fly to your next exciting destination. Yawn. Besides, you can always pick up xtra time every month. They will fly you to a different base where you can see different airports and stay in exotic hotels.
"Colgan will try to screw you out of your money". Welcome to the real world. I was an independent contractor in my last career and constantly had to chase my money down. You have to look out for yourself in this industry or any industry for that matter. Take a look at all the pay cuts and furloughs in this industry. Management is not on your side!! If you stay on top of your paysheets and call if there is a discrepency, you should not have a problem. If it's not resolved, call again. Be persistant, be respectful and professional, even if you feel they are not.
"Colgan will try to make you fly unsafe planes". Not true.
Colgan is what it is. It's a great place to start. The crews are a great bunch of people. The flying is fun and challenging. The upgrade is fast. In dealing with crew scheduling, payroll, management and your fellow pilots, you will aquire the personal skills that are important in navigating any business environment.