I imagine most of us have also done the NB thing. Yeah, extensions/reassignments were rare for me, too. Everything else? Business as normal. Multiple legs, change airplanes every time, one end of IAH to the other, inbound is late, oh crap, ground delay, up, down, several days every trip.

vs...

Preflight, takeoff, cruise/sleep for 8-16 hours, land, overnight for 24ish hours, repeat, done. With some seniority and efficient trips, you can do that 3 times a month and be done. Night and day difference in all regards.

It isn't all sunshine and rainbows. There are things I miss about NB. And yes, some of the trips can be a$$ kickers depending on your position and how well you manage yourself. But overall work vs $ isn't even in the same realm.

 

Permabunky can get boring is the one negative I’d say if you’re junior.

 

I would be wary of bidding the 777 in Ewr as it is currently in flux and being largely taken over by 787. The wide body fo vs narrow body captain never mathed correctly IMO. Every single person that said “you can earn the same” was using min guarantee for captain pay and using their best month ever that was a complete fluke in their equation. I always credited 78-80 as a reserve 737 CA under the old rules and with the new rules I was averaging mid 80’s plus add pay I would have needed 115 hrs a month or more to come close. That’s a LOT of flying. The senior people who could bid trips with lca for training or the really productive trips is a different story.

It is a great qol and you do learn a lot from flying with people that have seen almost everything but the financial hit is there. I would also question when things slow down and the vacancies potentially dry up. I would rather be in the left seat at min guarantee if we do furlough or start displacing. You never know how long the good times will last so the common wisdom is cash the big checks while you can and hope for the best.

 

Thank you. I am hoping for EWR since I live 40 minutes from there.

 

I dont think there will be too many 777 bids in EWR in the near future.

 

This right here,

Jr NB CA > Jr WB FO….. Both will be on reserve, jr WB FO will be bunkie, JR NB CA will get worked. Jr NB CA will make way more….

As a Jr CA on reserve I’ve been averaging low 90s with the add pay on top of reserve min guarantee…. A Jr WB FO isn’t beating that unless they are a line holder, scoring premium flying (they aren’t), and working their ass off….

Now a WB FO with good seniority that can take advantage working the contract in their favor, yeah, that’s a different story ….

 

Thats all true. It also only addresses the $$$ part.
A NBCA will work for that money. The WBFO will have to spend half an hour finding his uniform because it’s been 4 months since he needed it…

As an adult, professional, etc. I actually miss feeling engaged with the operation. I don’t like the uncomfortable feeling of sitting down to program the FMC and fumbling around because it’s been so long. I like flying airplanes.

On the other hand, as a parent and spouse, Ita pretty awesome that I can pay all the bills and still make every kids soccer game and every birthday. The kids don’t even bother asking when I’m working anymore, they just expect I’ll be there in the morning.

To each their own. I genuinely don’t think either lifestyle is “better” they are just different. It probably depends on your phase of life too.

Everything goes in cycles and the current staffing on the WBs definitely isn’t sustainable long term. A year from now the WB guys could be getting worked over and the NB all sitting around twiddling their thumbs because of some Boeing F’up…

 

I've been following (and contributing to) this thread because it really cuts to the heart of my matter, too. WB FO, Reserve, live in base, NEVER work. I coach little league (my kid says "you're more of an ASSISTANT coach." He's not wrong.), I work the chain gang during football season.

I'm also a borderline liability on the flight deck. I just did a CBT module on ground ops safety, and it mentions that ORD tops all our incidents, and recommends that familiarity with the airport is key. Well, if I ever worked at United Airlines, I'd probably be more familiar with the United hubs. On the rare event that I get to Chicago, I am that guy on the radio. I don't like fumbling around with the flows and trying to remember the gotchas in the FMC. No amount of chair flying (which makes the list every day I sit at home but gets done none of the days I sit at home) can replace actual flying.

My bills get paid. But I'm 53 tomorrow and lost more than a decade, so more money would be more money. It's awesome to not work. But I can't stop thinking about upgrade. It's absurd that the safest thing I could do would be to upgrade on an airplane I've never flown...just so that I could fly the operation.

But no amount of video calling and texting can replace actual fathering. And being present for my 9 year old is the most important job I'll ever have. Until it's being present for my 10 year old. But I also get less relevant in his eyes with each passing year. Until I'm not. My "phase of life" is a hybrid due to my lost decade and the late age at which my son arrived.

The original poster lives in base and seems willing to trade dollars for time off to go on WB FO reserve in Newark. I am torn about trading time off for dollars to go to a NB CA line in SFO. I will wait until I can hold a line, which won't be long now, and maybe give it one more football season...it's wonderful to have these choices, but they are trade offs.

Tick tock goes the career clock. I worry that the NB upgrades will dry up while I sit on the sidelines and wonder if this is the time.

 

And we are 1 9-11 event from it all going away.

Choices are a good thing as are a back up plan sitting on the bottom of the list.

 

Other than during the summer, being a junior NB CA is probably better on reserve than it is being a lineholder. You’ll still fly whether voluntarily or not, but not to the same degree a lineholder would be—do your research. Look at the reserves available for SFO at the end of the month and see their totals, then look at the bottom feeding lineholder awards. You may be surprised at the QoL difference with little to no impact on pay.