Yep. Pay is low for now but I've never had this much time off. I get the sense of having complete control of my schedule and I have the ability to stack more flying on to my schedule if desired.

The good:

4 days off between pairings, except during transition
Transition conflict language
Line bidding with (usually) good schedule flexibility
Good commuter clause
Decent 401(k) match, though no company DC.

Meh (aside from the pay issues mentioned above already):

Soft time has been quite a bit tougher to come by lately as a commuter. I average about 80 credit hours per month.
Training scheduling can be challenging, no system to bid for it during your base month.
No AQP for training.
Low sick time accrual with a low cap on the time you can have in your bank.

Overall, there is decent QOL to be found here, with a few improvements we hope to make in our next contract. Good luck.

I would argue with your assertion of Industry Worst Airbus pay. Allegiant and Virgin (it's only a very recent change that Virgin have increased their pay) have both been paid less, remember hourly pay rate is not the whole story. Our pay needs to come up, and I'm sure it will with our next contract.

Good points all. Indeed, pay isn't Allegiant-bad, just 34% below industry average bad. In fact, it should be mentioned that Frontier has slightly lower rates as well. I advocate that we take a pay cut in order to better align ourselves for the coming merger. ;)

Maybe pay will improve. Maybe the Flight Attendants will finally get a contract. Maybe they'll stop terminating and outsourcing loyal in-house CSA and ramp employees. But until then, a prospective candidate needs to appreciate the undeniable realities of the now.

All you have to do is email planning. I've always gotten what I've asked for.

The open time is feast or famine right now. Lots of open trips, but all worth less than my current schedule. But if you need a day off, you can pretty much trade to get it, you just take a hit in pay.

Yeah, I forgot to mention Frontier.

The schedule aspect is very true, plenty of open time, but some trips aren't as good as what I've got now. That being said, if I need a particular day off it's extremely easy now to be able to drop and replace it with something else. Is it perfect? No, I might have to take a cut in my minimum for it, but that's the breaks.

On what basis are you making this statement? I assume you are adding your conflict/transition pay? Even then it's not exactly a clear cut comparison.

Not a ****ing contest Shy, but just a quick cursory glance says minimum at Virgin is 70 hours, minimum at Spirit is 72. Deadhead pay is paid at 50% at Virgin and there is the transition conflict.

These are pulled off of APC, not actual contracts so it could be different. There's pluses and minuses to both places, I'm not debating that. I'm debating the fact that we are the lowest paid Airbus pilots.

And i would counter with we are the lowest paid, at least when you look at our labor cost. This is for 2014, but of the top ten airlines are labor cost is the lowest by far. No matter what managment says theres a lot of room to increase pay and still make huge profits.

I do that, and haven't been so lucky. I know this is the exception and not the rule. It would be a nice change to see a simple software update in FLiCA to allow a bidding system for training, versus sending off an email and hoping it works.