ok, so here's the deal. I fly for a large corporate department. I spent about 8 years in part 121 (chq, airtran, usair, psa, comair - lots of furloughs) and then another almost 9 years here. I am a light jet captain and i don't really mind it. I like being a corporate pilot for the most part. I'm paid a little over $100,000 per year with another $8000 in stock per year and up to a 20% bonus. Health insurance and retirement are about the same as jetblue. I drive to work and park 10 feet from the plane.
Hearing this makes me think you'd be a moron to leave, especially if you like where you live and the cost of living is low. But let's move on.
we have a scheduled rotation of 9 days off a month. Of course being corporate i'm home quite a bit (whether on-call, or an easy out and back etc). Over the last few years management has changed that schedule several times trying to squeeze blood from a turnip (we're very short pilots). So far in 2013 our schedule has been suspended 7 times due to staffing. That means if you had days off, they were taken away. Two weeks out of every ten (so about every two months) you have what they call a "flex" period. 14 days during which you will get 48 hours off, but you don't know when they will happen - so you can't really plan for them. Vacations wont be approved during the flex weeks either. When i do work, it's a little like being on reserve forever. I know when my work days are but i don't know where i'm going or how long i'll be gone for until the night before the trip.
Doesn't sound much different from airline life. You have more HARD days off, but you are gone a hell of a lot more. If you are on reserve, (which you will be for a while, as you know), you'll be doing the same amount of sitting around, only you won't be doing it at home. You'll be doing it in a crashpad away from home for more than half the month (if you commute, which it sounds like you're going to do), for less than half the pay. A lot of that is personal preference. I don't mind being on reserve (corporate on call) if I'm doing it at home and I still have a fair amount of hard days off to plan stuff. Some people hate it. Sounds like you're not a fan of it.
i do all my own flight planning, performance, weight and balance, etc.
Who cares? Who would you rather do it? You, (where it'll be done right), or incompetent a$$ dispatchers that file you through thunderstorms with min fuel because they have no experience other than sitting in front of a damn computer and feeding in canned routes? And then if you want to change something, you have to deal with 20 different fcking departments to get approval because every airline is doing everything they can to erode captain's authority. Personally, I'd rather do it myself.
in 2010 the company laid off 10 pilots. Some were very junior, some were very senior (one with 30 years seniority). There is no recall for those pilots. That really got to me... I couldn't believe that after being somewhere 20...25...30 years you could just be let go with no chance for recall!
Welcome to the real world. Under a union, you have seniority. in the real world, you are kept around based on how good you are at your job and how well you get along with people, not SOLEY based on how long you've been there. If you've been somewhere 30 years, and you're a f-ckup, it doesn't matter if you've been there 30 years. It might not be right, but that's how the rest of the working world does it. Outside the airlines, get used to it. Of course, the advantage is that WITHOUT the seniority system, your experience actually counts for something. You don't have to start over if you leave. There's good and bad either way.
my immediate supervisor and i don't get along very well so i feel like i always have to be looking over my shoulder.
Not good, but you won't lose that in the airlines. Everything you do is scrutinized if you are a PIC. If you're an SIC, it's a little easier.
i don't know why i originally applied to jetblue but i did, and now i'm in phase 2 probably a few months from a class date. I'm not new to the airlines, but it's been a long time. I only spent 3 years at usair so my memories of airline life aren't colored by fantastic major airline contracts -- i understand what it's like.
Jetblue is definitely in the bottom tier, but it's way better than any regional and you will do OK there. Bad thing is at 40 years old, you will NEVER be senior here. At best, you'll be a mid seniority A320 captain and it'll take a LONG time.
if anything i'm concerned about the challenging commute from my home to bos or jfk for a year or two until we move to a domicile. (cost of living here is cheap - makes sense to stay for a few years while my pay is low)
If this is the case, you will be commuting to reserve for less than half the money and the best you'll do is mid lineholder. It'll be at least a couple of years before you are even back to what you are making now, and even then you will be WORKING A LOT HARDER for it. Eventually, when you upgrade, you'll be making more money, but you'll be gone a LOT more and will be working a LOT harder. You will have a hard schedule, though. More days off, less days at home. More money, a LOT more work. What's your poison?
i have a 7 year old at home, and every time i think i've made my decision to leave this department behind, i realize how much less time i will have at home with him and that is what is giving me the cold feet. I think once i'm in domicile i'll actually have a better qol than i do here, but who knows when that will happen?
That is VERY debatable. It depends on where you live and how quickly you gain seniority. You'll never be super senior enough as a captain to do just the day turns, so you'll be doing 3 days and 4 days, with about 14-15 nights a month at home at best. Reserve might be more, but it might be less in the summer. If you live in a low cost of living area now, you might make more money in Jetblue but if you're paying double what you're paying now for mortgage, bills, taxes, etc, what's the point? You're just working more for nothing.
bottom line. My job isn't in jeopardy today, but i'm 40 and if i'm going to make a move i need to probably make it soon. I interviewed at swa last year, but was unsuccessful. Aa, ual, and dal aren't calling. But jetblue called so now it looks like i'll have a decision to make. None of my corporate pilot friends can give me good advice because most of them have never flown for the airlines. -- none of my airline pilot friends can give me any good advise because most of them haven't flown corporate! (lots of former 135 guys, but very few pure corporate and even fewer fortune 500)
That is really more personal taste than anything. I can tell you probably like the structured, scheduled environment more, whereas I would MUCH rather be doing corporate. That's just basically whatever you like more, and totally up to your tastes. Just weigh all the options. I'm commuting to a line now, I make good money, but if I found a good corporate job, I'd quit tomorrow. That's just something you'll have to work out for yourself. Just be careful not to get 'grass in greener' syndrome too much. It always looks better from the outside. Then you get there and it's not what you thought it'd be.
i've always been kind of a square peg in a round hole here. I missed the structured world of airline flying so much that i involved myself in the "standards" committee at our department. It's better now than it was 9 years ago, but still pretty loose and easy compared to the airlines.
That's about it. My whole life story.
good luck
