1. Roth IRA's No taxes when I pull it out. Those airline pensions are lookin' real good right now. No way management would renig on those.
2. No per diem. I have a credit card. When I want a $30 dollar steak dinner, I swipe it. When I want a McNugget meal, I swipe it. I've run up a $100 bar tab and not a word said to me.
3. I'm the most junior captain at a small 135 company. I NEVER get screwed. All trips are given on a rotational basis, as are ASAP callouts.
4. See #3
5. Labor law. You can't fire someone for looking at you wrong.....that's called wrongful termination. We don't have a contract. Most other industries in this country don't have contracts. We work with managment and they help us out when they can. If they ask me to do something outside the regs I say no. I don't grieve, or BS, I just say no. They fire me, I call the feds, and the slimiest shyster lawyer I can find. I have a problem, I go to the boss's office and we sit down and work it out. I don't file a grievence and wait for years to have it resolved.
6. Seniority list & union. Designed specifically to protect the dumbest most inept motherf-ckers there. You get hired, don't wreck or kill anybody for about 2 to 4 years, you upgrade. You could be the dumbest, stupidest, $hittiest pilot at the company, but your ability has no bearing on it......your number is up, so you upgrade. Meanwhile, every other business in the universe promotes based on ability. ALPA guys love to spout off about the 'chief pilots' buddies' and crap like that, but I don't see a problem anywhere else. Works fine at CitationShares. Works fine where my father has worked for 30 years.
7. I had pass benefits too. But where the hell am I going to go for my 2 days off after flying 25 hours on 4 14 hour days in a row? All I want to do is sit on my a$$ for my days off. I'm tired. The whole time I had benefits, I never used them for anything other than going to work. Never had the time or money. Not worth it. Of course, it was Mesa, but even the best lines were $hitty. All of them ended at 10pm and began at 5 am. My 3 days off were more like 1 and 3/4.
Just my $.02.