SkiFishFly said:
Airtran is hardly a "glorified regional" as you put it.
Some pay numbers from Airline pilot central
AirTran
Yr FO CAPT
1 43 102
2 56 102
3 61 106 (most likely upgrade to captain by end of yr 3)
4 66 112
5 72 120
6 74 124
12 79 153
CO (737)
Yr FO Capt
1 30 30 (boy that looks a lot like regional pay)
2 55 132
3 64 133
4 73 134
5 80 135
6 88 137
12 98 144 Upgrade prob around year 8
Airtran insurance is rather expensive but at least you are covered within one month of being hired.
....
That's about as useless comparison as I've seen.
Look, go to who hires you first, then you can worry about the other when/if they call. Also, if you live in ATL and don't want to move, there's a lot to be said about living in domicle.
All that said, that pay rate and upgrade time isn't anywhere near reality at CAL. The $30/hr for first year is true, but holding a line almost immediately on the 737 and after a whopping 2 months on the 756 puts first year pay closer to 40k than 30k. Still sh*t, but it helps having a few thousand extra dollars at the end of the year.
Poor schedule? The 737 out of EWR might have early shows and late finishes, but it has a lot of variety to manipulate your schedule if you want to. My buddy got a conversion line (on his second month on line) with 14 days off 85 hrs of block and wknds off. Probably not typical, but not too bad.
The 756 lines barely qualify as work. Whoever said the trips are sh*tty is smoking crack. VAST majority are 3 day trips to Europe. 1800-2100 check ins, 24hr overnight in some really nice hotels and cities, and then fly back home to stroll into EWR between 1100-1400, before the afternoon WX hits. I know there are more productive places out there, but 2 leg 3day trips worth 15-20hrs ain't too bad. If you want to do domestic, it does exist on the plane, but not too much in EWR.
The 777, that's just a jobs program. Don't think too many people actually work. Newhires will be going into it, in theory. There are 17 open positions that were not even filled on this last bid. Still crap pay for first year, but you aren't going to be exactly busting your rear end.
2nd year pay on all these aircraft (and they are all available 2nd year) is more than Airtran. Captain upgrades are nearly identical (within a year or so) and CAL pay (approx $141/hr blended rate on RSV on 4th year pay) is considerably higher than Airtran's ($112/hr). Hey, if you're going to get paid 1000hrs a year, I figure you'd want an extra $29,000 at the end of it, but to each their own.
Airtran's pay catches the SNB pay at CAL by year 12, but that overlooks LNB and WB pay at CAL (don't even have to leave the 737 to get LNB pay.. $163/hr at year 12).
HTH
