bcpilot

Let's attempt to bring this thread back to the issue. You keep asking about only 2 things, Pay & QOL.

So, your QOL and as a matter of fact, your net income(PAY left after travel related expenses), will eventually depend on all these follwing factors:

Where do you live?? East Coast, West Coast, Midwest?? Are you going to move to whatever base you get assigned to??

If not, Which airline has a base either closest to where you live which is driveable in 1-2 hours or easiest commute from where you live??

Then,

a) Are you single, married/ have a significant other,
b) Is your significant other willing to follow you around the country?
c) Do you have childern?
d) Does your spouse/ significant other has childern from prior marriages/ relationships that can prevent their move due to custory issues?
e) Does he/she have a job & is his/her job easily replaceable in a new city........

See all these questions...... You are the one who knows what your situation is & you should be asking all these questions to yourself FIRST.....

I'd suggest that you give more info about yourself and present a more specific scenario, then people can try to give to you some tips & advise....

Bottomline, It will really depends on what your short term & long term goals are??

Skywest isn't running classes either, so that leaves only XJT, which is also owned by SKW.

Typically, general wisdom, what I have read here & I personally agree: Choose the company that puts you in class SOONEST...... There is no guarantee whether the other company may have a class 1 week later or MAY BE they start to furlough after 2 weeks. 1 week seniority may mean the difference between furlough & staying on property. Witnessed that with Eagle In Nov 11 post BK.

Had to see it myself to believe in the age old wisdom...

Nevets

Very telling that you only chose to try to rebuke only this one point that I made. But let me try to explain it for you and any other non-union pilots that may have the same misconception. Mainline pilots decide what aircraft they fly with their pilots through negotiations with their mainline management. At no time during those negotiations do any regional pilot union tell the mainline pilot union or management what they should negotiate for. The ALPA structure does not have a way of doing that. ALPA is an association of independent unions that pool their resources. Eac MEC maintains their autonomy in what they negotiate for. And if a regional pilot union even thought about telling the mainline pilot union what to negotiate for, they would be laughed off the universe. Once the mainline pilot union and management have a contract, whatever left over scraps that the mainline pilot union didn't/couldn't scope in, the mainline management will take those scraps and up that flying out to bid. Regional management will bid for that flying. Generally, the lowest bid wins. Regional management an regional pilot union will then negotiate for rates of pay, work rules, terms and conditions to win/keep the scraps. At no time does mainline pilot union tell the regional pilot union what to negotiate for.

There is no conflict of interest within ALPA when it comes to deciding what mainline flies and what to negotiate for. The whole thing about a lawyer representing both parties thing is just some BS some anti ALPA people made up so that others gobble it up and repeat it. It probably came from F&H.

Ultralight

Wait, you start a thread to ask which of the 3 regionals you should go to, someone points out that one of them is non union which may or may not be reason to go there (depending on what side of the fence you are on) and you don't like that?

Regarding failure rates, ground school etc, Skywest is AQP which is much easier on the trainee and has a much lower failure rate.

You would think AQP would be something that a union would be pushing for, but like I said, Skywest doesn't have one. (Go figure.)

I have heard good things about Compass and Express jets training, but I don't know if they are AQP or not. My guess is no.

Ultralight

You don't have to explain it to me because I don't care. I have worked for union carriers and non union carriers. Pros and cons to having a union. For you the pros outweigh the cons, for me, at the regional level at least, they don't.

saturn

Why are people griping at a guy trying to talk to pilots about the company they work for? This website can/should be used as a resource for advice and mentoring, and if another pilot asks a question to the community at large and you don't feel like answering it, why even waste time responding?
Anyway, congrats on getting closer to your goal, and obviously which employer you dedicate a good portion of your career to does make a difference. I wont speak for airlines I havent worked for, but I can tell you about SkyWest.
Pro: If you live in the West, and for the most part Midwest, commute should be fair if you decide not to live in base. I dont see MSP/ORD/IAH/PHX/DEN/SLC/SFO/LAX leaving anytime soon. Overall nice crews, and good morale. Compensation not the top, probably a 7 in a 1-10 scale. Work rules could always use some improvement but are pretty good for a regional. Never furloughed, company historically and currently profitable with good financial security.
Cons: Currently not hiring, aging fleet of 200's, depending on where you live it can be a while spent on reserve and/or upgrade time. Midwest hubs are junior, especially MSP. Senior bases are SLC/SEA/PDX. But upgrade times are cyclical in conjunction to hiring, but their are many "lifers" here. No current flow through agreements.
And about the union/non-union part. Some people would never work here because there is no union, but because it sounds like your in the pool I'll take it your not one of them. Most pilots at SkyWest are NOT anti-union. It just never was felt to be needed by the majority of pilots come voting time, because most are satisfied, and the things they want to change they don't feel unionizing would fix.
But if you go the Xjet or Compass route, that might work out great for you too. Hopefully some guys from there will chime in, good luck.

Herb Flemmming

They are all cream of the crop jobs with fantastic pay rates and jets with beau coup shine.

Alknew182

Compass is AQP

Nevets

Ok, we'll I've worked at both as well as it didn't sound from what you posted that you truly understand it. But your welcome for ASAP.

Ultralight

Wow, thanks for ASAP ALPA! What would we have done without ASAP? Oh wait, NASA report! For a second there I almost thought my union dues went to a good cause!

Ultralight

Good. So now the original poster has the choice of 3 regionals, 2 of which are AQP and one of which is non union.

Gotta hand it to the guy, he narrowed down 3 decent options.

Wonder why RAH never entered the equation