Still exploring options and looking at TSA for either the ORD or STL domiciles, since I would prefer not to have to commute. Have read through many of the threads (and other ORD based regional's threads).

Why should (or shouldn't) I consider TSA? (apologies if some of the info is elsewhere)

 

I’ve got a friend with TSA who might willing to talk with you over the phone and answer questions. PM me your contact info and I’ll get you in touch

 

I can tell you as someone who spent 6 years at TSA that you’re looking at this the wrong way and my opinion is based off of how you ask your question. I wouldn’t say you should ever look at a regional specifically and ask why should/shouldn’t I. That’s really the backwards way of going about deciding on a regional.

You really need to ask YOURSELF what you want out of this. What are YOUR priorities? Are you wanting to spend your entire career at a regional? If not do you want to go to a major? How do you want to get there? Do you want a flow? Do you want to hop around from regional to LCC to Major? Do you want to fly shiny new jets with engines that hang under the wing? What do you value? It sounds like no commuting so that’s a start (and a very wise start at that). Trans States will offer you damn near what any of these other regionals will. The regionals have all had to really compete heavily for the small pool of qualified candidates remaining which means that, barring signing bonuses at some and flow programs at others, you’ll get pretty much a very similar experience. A lot of flying in airplanes all over the country. My experience I had with the regionals and TSA taught me to really evaluate what you want and pick the one that checks the most boxes. Don’t look at any regional specifically and ask why. That’s my take anyways. Also don’t ever evaluate based on anything based in future speak. New planes, new bases etc. at the regional level they’ll never come and they’ll open and close at the drop of a hat.

 

I agree a lot with what you said, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking the experience at TSA is similar to those of other regionals. Yes all regionals are ****ty, but TSA takes the cake on the amount of JR manning going on right now. Additionally, all management sucks at regionals, but TSA management did their best to make sure they told the pilots as little as possible, and could never even time their announcements correctly so that we would find out major news from them BEFORE news articles came out. Seriously, one of a kind. Oh, and you want your PRIA and pilot records? Cough up $20, buddy. It's not like you flew and made thousands of dollars for us or anything...

 

All valid points. Just pros and cons still to me though. I didn’t choose TSA based on staffing or management. I chose it because of St. Louis base mostly which kept my costs down as I have family there. They also were getting 7 new planes at the time. You make good points though.

 

Wait... TSA charges for PRIA records?

 

Yes, printing and shipping fee.

 

I have only worked at one 121 regional so I don't know how prevalent this practice is, but it sounds incredibly cheap and petty for an airline to do this.

 

I don't know, the FAA does it, any school you that you want transcripts from does it, driving history records do it, medical records requests do it, court records, etc... Pretty standard practice in any industry to charge for records requests.

I would say it sounds cheap and petty to care about paying $20, business is business. Hey, I like free stuff just as much as the next guy, but I certainly don't feel entitled to it.

 

Welcome to the suck...