Gets really awkward when a pilot comes up asking for the jumpseat on a repo flight.

My guess is there was some kind of data or software update where our code got dropped somehow. The gate agents may know them but if our airline code isn't in the database, no luck.

Fwiw, this happened in ATL, and almost every time I fly through ATL the DAL gate agents act like they've never heard of Trans States before....

Luckily I've never been denied the jumpseat before, but almost every time they've commented about TSA and/or asked where I'm based, who we fly for, etc.

I have a feeling with RDU opening, and probably an influx of commuters going through ATL to get to RDU, they'll hopefully get a little more familiar with Trans States.

Realistically, how much can a new FO expect to make their first year? Thanks!!

Rough estimate is just take hourly times $1000, this is a good pretax estimate. First year is a little tougher to predict because you can't rack up that extra per diem cash during the first couple months.

I started last January and I'm on track to make $33,000 before taxes, not including per diem. That is with three months of the old abysmal training pay ($1500/month vs $2680 now), and over half the year on the old pay rate ($24/hr vs $35.81 now). Disclaimer: I've been very aggressive picking up extra trips/swapping trips in open time and took advantage of the holiday pay.

75 x $35.81 = $32,229 minimum. Once you're a line-holder you can expect an additional $500-600 tax free per diem.

Since finishing IOE, I've never credited less than 100 hours, and thats pretty easy to do without sacrificing the number of days off by smart swapping of trips. I credited 150 hours in December (5 days of holiday pay helped) and 135 in October... so it is possible to get some good money, but I felt like I didn't have a life those months.

3 months out of the last 4 months for me have credited over 120 hours of time. A lot of that is thanks to holiday time however for the 2 that I did not have holiday pay on, simply learning to work our FLICA system has proved to be extremely beneficial. I got no holiday pay this month and i'm on track to credit like 129 which will be my personal record. As Celeste said before, I am also picking up as much stuff as I can. This month I only have 13 days off. Last month was 113 credit with 15 days off. If you are willing to work there is definitely money to be made here.

Whats your base? is that amount of flying exclusive to one base, or is it well distributed?

Additionally if you are crediting 100 hours how many are you actually flying? by my calculations 100 in credit at 35.81 at 100 hours per month should make someone 42,600 in a year (before tax). Pretty optimistic, I know. Am I missing something here, or are some people doing this?

If this is real, TSA should be competitive with places like republic and endeavor regarding pay!

It's real. Many lines will pay 90-100 hours once you actually fly them. You just have to wait for some overblock and cancel pay in there... Picking up trips at 200% allows you to get to 130ish pretty reliably. 200% for any trip that touched a holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year) made a lot of money for us too, and contributes to the 150 hours that would be harder on a 'normal' month.

The sky isn't falling here. It's a good place to be. And this isn't my first 121 either... I'll keep voting to make it better, but I'm not sorry I came here.

Didn't answer specifics quite as well as I'd like...

The flying can be had at any of the bases. It typically flys 80-85 hours per month with 90-95 hours credit. This is where Cancel pay and 100% deadhead show up on the paystub. :)

You would be able to get that 42k on first year, but it would be a lot of flying on the line to offset the lack of 100+ hour months in training. Not that it couldn't be done, but is sure would be easier if you counted a whole year without training. Of course upgrades are really quick, so you won't have two years of FO pay...