As opposed to an airline that doesn't give you a bonus... yet you still become their slave?

Regional bonuses do two things...

1) Attract pilots who are interested in regionals, and have choices (pretty much all pilots these days).

2) Prevent new-hires from leaving for other regionals.

After a year or two, nobody in their right mind is going to leave for another regional, and nobody in their right mind is going to NOT leave for a major if the get a call (regardless of bonus amount).

I don't know.. if you were a CRJ FO in the SEA domicile which is closing this month, going to Horizon and not having to commute might not seem a bad choice.

A. The credit value is sometimes higher than advertised block.
B. We are not the only historical block regional.
C. 2% is the accepted average figure.

Depends on your seniority and ultimate goals. Might be better to suck it up and upgrade than start all over.

DAL prefers TPIC, and nobody know what AS prefers, except they don't seem to prefer QX FO's.

Just my observation flying mostly the DL system
A. I see this once in every 10-15 flights and it is rarely by more that 4 minutes
B. the only other airlines I know of that have anything other that B.O.B. are 9E and YX and I believe they have protections so it is not as much of a loss ( not quite sure but the 9E people I talk to think it is much closer to marketing block that ours is) If I am wrong i'm happy to learn about it.
C. I think 5% is a much better average. In my past 4 months(except March) the difference between Block or Credit during the PBS award( keeping all other rules in place) was about 4-5 hours on a high 80's - low 90's hr line. my next pairing the difference is 1.7 hours on a 4 day. I have seen pairings in open time where the difference was almost 4 hours on a 4 day out of ORD.

I don’t care what I was awarded, I care about what I was *paid*

Accepted by who? My average is almost 5%.

I think an analysis was done nearly a year ago by a SAPA rep and their number was 5.9%. That person is now gone on to a major. The SAPA president does not want another comparison and the company will not provide the data points for another check.

But just looking at trips in open time, it is extremely rare to find a trip that ever credits more than block. To the other extreme I had found a trip that credited 21% less than marketing block.