Hello all,

I have been lurking the forums for months now and have a pretty good understanding about all three airlines. With four months to go until ATP mins I was hoping to get some input as to who you think will be the best fit for me.

Currently, I live in Maryland roughly an hour and some change from DCA which has sparked initial interest in PSA. Like many of you I would like to move on quickly. Delta in the long term goal. Personally, my preferences are as follows (from most to least important):

Career advancement -> Quality of life -> Work rules / pay -> Equipment

To my understanding these are the pros and cons of each airline as they pertain to me (please correct me for any errors and feel free to add):

PSA:
Pros - Living in base, SAP is a huge plus, pay seems to be above industry average, flight benefits with American, flow (not depending on it just nice to have in the back pocket)
Cons - Reserve from what I read isn't the best, SAP may be leaving in the near future for PBS which is a big drawback, classes are full reducing the chance of seeing pay rates similar to 9E in the future

Endeavor:
Pros - Industry leading pay, great contract, commuter clause, flight benefits with Delta, quick upgrade time, DGI program, perhaps a better route to Delta???
Cons - Living out of base is the big one here, classes are real backed up, reserve time likely increasing

Republic:
Pros - Live in base, 2nd highest pay in the industry with good work rules, flight benefits on all three, E175 is nice
Cons - Slow progression in terms of upgrade times, low priority with flight benefits

Overall, if you were in my position which route would you take? Its been a stalemate for awhile now and could use a bit of input. Thanks for your time!

Side question: is there any attrition data that shows where pilots are going outside of the flow? Curious to see if Delta is high on that list

Reserve rules at PSA are about the same as most places, but wait a few weeks for the new rules to be released to see how they will really be for you. They should be very good if 1/2 of what I am hearing is true.

SAP isn't going anywhere. That is just nonsense.

Class size has no impact on pay. Endeavor had full classes when they got their new pay, and so did Republic.

Some of your info regarding PSA isn’t quite correct, but overall it sounds as if you are fairly well-researched. I would. Interview with all 3 and make a decision. Some changes coming to PSA soon.

Trips 5- I was in a similar situation last summer. I also live in MD (St Mary’s). I attended a PSA road show and interviewed. I also interviewed at other airlines. I chose PSA for similar reasons you have stated. I started 25 Sept and will get to DCA in March and likely still on Short Call until May. Do your research, make a non emotional decision based on facts today. Can you live with things as they are? Know what the rumors are... grapevine is 90% accurate although timelines are not. I am satisfied with my choice based on my criteria. Do talk to pilots from your top choices, there are factors that don’t show up on airline profiles or in cynical posts. PM me if you would like to talk PSA.

PM sent.
filler

Hey Triple, this may be a small deal to you, but having flight benefits on Delta, esp with Republic being a contract carrier, does not compare at all to the ease of benefits with American as a WO. Delta uses a seniority based system, which means a contract or low time person continually is at the bottom of the list, and you can get bumped down at the last minute. I used to be with ASA, and spent many long days, flight after flight, trying to get in or out of Atlanta getting bumped down further and further. As a contract carrier, even the Delta retirees get on before you! PSA is on even footing as mainline, and it all goes by time of signup.

Yea that is very true. PSA definitely will come out on top for flight benefits.

A couple of people on other threads have been saying take PDT over PSA, any idea why thats the case? Never really considered them honestly

I may not be the most knowledgable, but perhaps they're referring to the slightly higher recent flow from Piedmont or the fact that you're fairly close to PHL.

Keep in mind with PDT, you could end up with turboprops, which may or may not matter to you.

All Piedmont new hires are going into the jet.

Piedmont does have the fastest flow of all the Wholly Owneds- looks like 2 years faster for comparable new hires. There’s a lot of movement up the seniority list due to flow attrition and retirements, as well as expansion of the airline, so quicker opportunities for folks to get into the Training Center as instructors, LCAs, SOE Captains etc. you’ll also be a line holder as a FO and Captain right away due to the expansion (36ish Jets now getting 20 more this year). Outside attrition at all the WOs will be an X factor as hiring picks up everywhere to see how much faster Piedmont’s flow ends up being in the end.

PHL is driving distance from MD, so it could be an option.

You will work harder/fly more at Piedmont and have less flexibility with the scheduling compared to PSA, until both management teams get PBS implementation. How long that will be? We’ll see but both groups are in negotiations at the moment so could be thus year that PSAs SAP and Piedmont’s Line Bidding w/ vacation conflict go away.

I chose piedmont for the fastest flow as well as opportunities to beef up the resume to help apply OTS to the tier one majors.

An added benefit that I didn’t know beforehand is that Piedmont prides itself on having the lowest NH attrition rate of the regionals training failure wise, especially now that they have the jet. For some folks that’s something they care about, others not so much, but I do have a buddy who had have his class washed out by PSAs training department as an early Christmas gift. Downside is Piedmont’s training is backlogged at the moment- silver lining on that is your probation clock is running and you’ve got full pay and benefits while you wait through training breaks and can fly on the outside before starting groundschool with the blessing of the Company.

As for Delta being your goal, a bunch of Piedmont folks have been getting CJOs there recently, including one FO with 0TPIC time.

Piedmont may be worth you looking into further if you’re drivable to PHL.

To stay on topic-

Of the three options presented, I’d probably go with PSA for career advancement prospects/legitimate flow to a legacy, or Endeavor for the money. Endeavors DGI has some funky caveats to it and its SSP precursor had some really low initial pass rates (1 out of 3) with only 2/3 getting accepted overall, and more pilots leave PSA for Delta than flow to AA some months so I don’t feel DGI holds the same value as it used to when Delta hiring was rare. Republic offers neither high pay (for the next two years at least) nor career progression opportunities.

PM sent colonials 13 and Trips...