What are those paychecks looking like year one on reserve?

Expect around $41k during your 1st year. That's assuming 3 months at training pay & 9 months at minimum guarantee with 2% A321 override. You might be able to make more if you put yourself on premium flying list for flying on your day off. But if you're trying to budget around your paycheck it is best to just assume min pay as other pay is not guaranteed.

Said it before and I’ll say it again, treating new guys (and gals) like cr@p with pay barely half (or less) of what most were making as a regional captain is NOT the way to build pilot group unity. Yeah, yeah, I know that it’s even worse at UPS. So what?

If you want quality future coworkers in these days of declining pilot availability, easing the transition to the big leagues needs to be a priority for every pilot group, not just for management. Even if it costs a little negotiating capital.

I was really interested in Spirit, since I live in Las Vegas, but I’m single income with a family. There’s no way I could make 42k work for my first year!

Hey Clubber, whats your prediction of life on first year reserve?

It's a great time to get divorced if you're marriage just isn't working out. Ask me how I know...

Way to miss the forest for the trees.

You’ll break $100k easy your second year and by year three, seeing you live in base and are willing to be flexible, you can easily be north of $150k.

I was also single income with kids. I ended up financing my first year mostly on credit. And that was on the old contract. I don’t think I made much more than $30k. In South Florida.

Yes it sucked, but long term it made sense.

That was 5 years ago. My income is now well north of $250k, double anything I would have dreamed of at my previous employer...

Your kids will survive For a year on Ramen and Mac n Cheese no problem. It’ll go by fast.

You have to laugh when you have an RJ CA on your plane tell you “I would come to Spirit, but it’s too much of a drop for me in pay”. Meanwhile he is making $72/hr as an RJ CA.

I financed my first year on savings. And was getting back to even by year 2 (old contract). Whether or not first year pay should be higher this contract is another topic. But you’re completely right that although first year will hurt, the payoff has been excellent.

Dare I say “in my day it was $38/hr”

You’re military, 2000 hours. Get a job with a regional, take the signing bonus to get by first year and you’ll get on with a Legacy because they still love military hires.

Coming from a good corporate airplane, it’s going to take me several years to get back to where I’m at, and the first year paycut is a whole whole lot, but as you guys stated, you just have to suck it up and do it. We are going to live off savings, and I sold a few toys to fund the first year. In the end, I’ll get it all back and get it back relatively quickly.