- Home based with no unprotected commute
- No reserve
- Opportunity for domestic or worldwide flying (with the IRL not being solely seniority based, so it might not take too long to get there)
- Scheduling can be bid as short as 4 or 5 days (more like airlines), or many consecutive days in a row to get all the flying done for the month in one or two trips
- From what I gather, management doesn't micromanage or breathe down the necks of pilots (ie you are treated like a professional, trusted, and left to do your thing)
- Good maintenance/new aircraft
- You keep the points
- Vacations work out to be about 2 weeks every 4ish months by sandwiching vacation days between days off
- Pay isn't my primary motivator, and in any case, Flexjet appears to pay plenty even if it isn't quite Delta pay
- Fast upgrade
- Meals, parking, etc. covered and a company card to take care of the little stuff that adds up (ie you are taken care of while at work)
- Ive been told benefits are pretty great, and retirement will likely be improved in order to keep up
My background, which may shed some light on my priorities: I am 30 years old, single/no kids, but I am somewhat of a homebody. I love living in Oregon and have no plans to leave. I like visiting Europe or Hawaii for a couple weeks once or twice a year for vacation. All my flying has been part 91 corporate in Citations/CJ/Challenger/Hawker, and I managed a CJ for a year. I hear that fractional flying is way more work than airline flying, but coming from single pilot part 91 flying and management, I can't imagine its worse than that in terms of workload. I currently have a CJO from a regional, estimated June/July class, and I *should* be getting an interview with Alaska Airlines soon (based on what one of their chief pilots told me after meeting with them). Alaska would be my career destination if I went to the airlines primarily due to PDX/SEA bases because I am not leaving the PNW and the idea of commuting for the rest of my career sounds awful. I am not chasing the biggest paycheck. I want days at home, even if that means making less money. I want short-ish trips, which seems to be fairly possible with Flexjet (as opposed to NetJets, where 7+ days seems standard), even if I have to build a little seniority first. I have no interest in 7/7, 8/6, etc. on a regular basis. Will I end up flying 7, 8 days in a row here sometimes? Of course I will. But it sounds like that wont be the case all the time, especially given some seniority, and FlexJet appears to offer the shortest preset trip duration options out of any of the fractional/135 operators.
I get the sense that Flexjet could be a good fit for me. Is Flexjet perfect? No, but all things considered, it feels like it could be a good place to be for someone with my priorities. Having said all that, feel free to poke holes in the points I've made if I have any assumptions wrong.
I know I probably have rose-colored glasses on, but having looked into UA/DL/AA/AS/SW/NJ in great detail, every organization has its own list of shortcomings: "Oh you could be captain at Delta in less than a year"...sure...and it's such a great opportunity, all the other 8,000 FO's have passed it up. United reserve is god-awful. Alaska is a short staffed glorified regional with slow movement. American work rules suck; Southwest has deteriorated since Herb left, NetJets/Flexjet need to increase their pay and retirement in order to keep up, etc etc. My point is that nowhere will be perfect. I am coming from part 91 management, 24/7 gotta answer the phone, can't plan anything with friends and family, my boss would ask me to work even on hard days off, etc. so having a set schedule - even if I still have to greet pax and load bags - sounds like heaven compared to what I had.
But how about the company itself? Is it a wise move to place my eggs in the Flexjet basket considering company health and outlook? I see they're going public...and while I don't expect anyone here can see the future, what is the general feeling of how this will affect pilots? With no union, will management come through and make life miserable for everyone to save a buck and please shareholders? Is the company healthy from a financial perspective? Big growth plans? How are things for pilots here when the economy slumps? To compare, I know Alaska has done really well in terms of minimal furloughs when things get tough. They're weathered lots of storms over the years, and while their conservative financial approach is hurting them in terms of pilot attrition, at least pilots over there seem to have good job security as a result of that approach, historically speaking. How about Flexjet?
Thanks for any insight, and I apologize for the book I just wrote.