All of my friends at CAL aren't quit as happy as you. And they fly the big 767 too. Obviously it is a better job but your work rules are not that good. Every one I talk to over there hates the PBS system. Bad trips, uncommutable and 11 or 12 days off not nearly as nice as Express. Not to mention 75% deadhead pay.

Now that is for right now and I know in 5 years they will be a lot happier than if they would have stayed at Express. It just sucks being at the bottom of the list.

When you upgrade on the 737 remember you will be back doing the same exact job that you did at Express, just for more money. No more two leg trips.

I'm curious. When you sign on with Express what is the term for your contract. Is it a 3yr or 1yr at a time?

Well Ill tell ya one thing, our XJT contract was better than Colgan's contract, wait a minute..........................hehe

I love PBS. Easy and I get what I want. I'm not that senior either. The Captains I fly with (that didn't screw up their bid) like it too. 757/767 is very commutable, the 737 is less so. I drive one hour to EWR, so I don't care about start or end times. The only people I know getting 12 days off are on reserve. I had 15 off last month and 16 this month. 75% deadhead is temporary- it goes to 100% in July 2007. Besides, I don't dead head or do any IRO flying. I do mostly Ireland and the U.K., with an occasional mainland Europe flight. Next week is Barcelona. I get Vegas two day trips too. That's about all the domestic flying I do.

To respond to the other post: I got to CAL via Express. I interviewed in 1997 as part of the flow through. I ended up a 2005 hire, so it took a while. I had to wait for my number to come up and of course 9/11 happend.

Sure, I'll work harder on the 737 as a junior reserve CA, but for $125/year I'll do the "Express style" flying that I've done before.

Are you talking about an employment contract? Cause there isn't one.

You aren't required to give them XX amount of time for the initial cost of training ect?

No dude, it's not CHQ, MESA, ect.

Nope. Back in the day (while still part of the scab-infested CAL) they used to do something like that but not for a long time. Like another guy said, this is aquality operation where they don't have to worry about guys jumping ship for greener pastures (like Colgan, Mesa, CHQ, etc). We are the greener pasture.

Just my two cents - but I don't know of anyone at CHQ that's "jumping ship" to go to another regional...fractional, cargo, legacy, etc. sure.

Although I'm sure a bunch of you guys have a friend in training who knew a guy whose cousin left CHQ in 2001 to go to XJT...

Probably not many if any from CHQ but you practically trip over guys who came from Mesa in the crew room. And I'm sure our buddy SAAB isn't alone coming from Colgan.