I'm reading End of 2021 salary survey and as a newbie with no 121 experience yet, trying to decipher the information. Couldn't find this info in the pinned Acronym thread, so check my understanding:

Block hours: Hours you actually flew? Noticed it's often less than monthly minimums, so is this a QOL factor that says for example, despite being paid the minimum ~75 hrs/mo, you only flew 40 hrs/mo ?
B-fund: Pretty much money in your pocket, that you can withdraw later during retirement?
Landings: Definition is obvious, but seems to be mostly cargo pilots reporting this number, is it a similar way to look at "days worked"? So fewer landings = higher QOL?

So if I'm reading this right, at the end of the day, someone who made $300k with 400 block hours essentially got paid to do less flying (more premium routes, etc), vs someone who made $300k with 800 block hours which means they had to hustle more and pickup extra routes?
So for the former would be generally considered a higher/more senior QOL, and the latter is lower/junior QOL?

Block is actual flight time, from parking brake drop to parking brake set at the gate. Often the credit vs block is a QOL issue, examples...

Trip/duty rig: Most contracts provide for X amount of pay per day and/or per time on duty, regardless of block. So if you have a thirty hour layover and you get five hours credit for the calendar day in the hotel that usually counts for QOL... even if it's not a great tourist destination you can rest, exercise, catch up on personal admin, maybe visit friends/family in the area.

Deadhead pay: Most contracts pay for time spent riding in the cabin for company reposition (not commute to work). Frankly I'd rather just fly the plane most of time but if the DHD is at the beginning or end of a trip a commuter can skip the DHD, go directly to the first airport where he's actually operating a flight and still get paid for the DHD.

Reserve: If you don't get called on any given day, you still get paid.


Bottom line, getting more credit for less block is generally good for QOL. Sometimes it's pay to stay home, other times it's pay to be at work (ex. layover) but not actually working. Good majors will get you a hotel for even a 4+ hour airport sit.



This explains it: https://www.flyingmag.com/jumpseat-b-word/

Most major airlines have a 401(k), and if there's no pension the employer DC is typically 16%, with no employee contribution required. The employee can also make voluntary contributions up to the IRS combined cap.


Landings equates to legs. It's a much easier and shorter day to do one transcon for six hours, than to do six one-hour legs for the same pay.

The transcon will involve about 7:30 duty for six hours pay, and you'll still have time and energy to do stuff when you get to the layover (unless it's a redeye, but that's a different discussion).

The six-leg day will probably take 12 hours and you'll be wiped out when you're done. We don't get paid for the pre-flight prep, so you're doing that for free multiple times on a multi-leg day.

Long-haul ops take this to another level: 10-18 hours of credit for each leg (you get paid for the time when you're resting during flight). You typically need about 75-80 hours/month. Say 15 hours outbound, 24-30 hour layover, 15 hours return (yes one leg will be longer and the other shorter going east/west). Do the math and you get nine-ish days worked for the month.

Hustle doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it. Has a lot more to do with type of aircraft, type of flying, and work rules.

There are people who make the same coin but block half of what some other people work based on type of operation.

Generally yes, high credit/block ratio operations will go senior. That includes reserve *if* reserves are not worked like rented mules.

Whether you hustle or not is up to you... and having good QOL, ie lots of days off makes it a lot easier to hustle if desired. So focus on what gets you to QOL first, then you can hustle and trade that QOL for coin if you want. If you're in a low QOL, low credit/block ratio gig then it's hard to hustle because you don't have enough days off for rest and legality.