I'm a senior CA at one of the "better" regionals and thinking about making the change and getting out of the airlines for good.
I made a similar move about a year and a half ago.
The money seems to be quite similar for the first 5 years or so vs. staying here, which is fine.
When comparing, obviously you want to compare the base pay first and foremost. But it's worth factoring in the health benefits, too; at some companies, that can be worth
thousands in premiums that you'd have to pay, but which are free at NetJets. Plus, If you can afford to max out the 401K, the company will match 50% of what you contribute, up to 15% of your salary. That's another $4266 for a 7/7 guy on first-year pay.
You also stand a chance at getting overtime, holidays, and extra workdays, but I wouldn't include those in your budget when comparing, because nothing's guaranteed with that kind of thing.
Here's how I'd look at the compensation package, from a dollar point of view (all rates are for a Year 1 FO, on the 7/7 schedule)
Basic Salary: $56,875
Insurance for family: $4000 approx value
401k Match (max contribution): $4266
Total: $65,141
As far as "soft money" goes, let's assume you average just 3 hours of overtime a tour, times 24 tours (remember, two weeks paid vacation first year!), at $39.06 an hour, that's another $2812. (Remember, OT is a big "if," and depends largely on your fleet. The 400XP guys rarely see any OT; us Excel guys see it quite a bit.)
Holidays are also paid a bonus if you work them. Let's assume your 7/7 schedule crosses 4 of the 10 designated holidays, at $468.75 apiece. That's another $1875.
Also, if the company fails to get you home before midnight on your last day -- even if it's an airline delay -- it costs them
two extended days' payments as a penalty for keeping you working on a day off. You can probably plan on at least one, so we'll add another $937.50.
Added together, that's about another
$5625 of potential money, give or take. Also consider that, as you'll be taking most of the per-diem home because of the crew meals, that's another
$5800 or so that you'll probably take home, tax free. I like the sauce, so knock $2000 off of that for my annual beer budget.
I'm interested in knowing about the differences in QOL, schedules, hours, work rules, etc, and how they compare.
QOL is generally
much better, in my opinion. First and foremost, there's no jumpseating to work, no commuting, no standby lists, no crashpads, no coming into work the night before when you're on reserve, "just in case" -- none of that stuff. You get a showtime by 6pm on your last day off. That's it, and it won't change. You report to the
crew base you choose. If you airline, it's on real, paid ticket.
Hotels are generally very good; normally a Hilton, a Hyatt, a Doubletree -- that level of hotel. Sometimes you'll get something lesser, but they're usually still pretty good. You'll get loyalty points for the hotels, too -- so you not only get a free flight from the airlines to work, but you get a free room when you go on vacation!
With the majority of our hotels, we've also negotiated to have full breakfast (which can be $20 at many of these good hotels) and internet (another $10-13) included in the rate, so you won't be on the hook for those. That's thousands of dollars in savings right there!
Other stuff....
Jepps belong to the airplane, not the pilot. So no lugging a big chart case around. Sounds minor, but it's sure nice traveling with just a suitcase and a laptop bag. We do the Jepp updates in the plane when we get down time (or, if necessary, we'll call in to extend the end of our day to get them done before we go to the hotel). Since there are several hundred airplanes flown by several
thousand pilots, more often than not you'll find someone else beat you to doing the Jepps, which is nice. (Then again, pilots being the lazy SOBs they are, sometimes you'll find some slacker left you half a dozen of them to do. It all evens out in the end, I guess.)
Some don't like being out for 7 days at a time. For me, the 7 days at home
more than offsets it.
(And that turns a week of vacation into 21 days off in a row!) But each person has to make that call for himself.
The only negative QOL issue for me is that you really don't have control over
when you work on a particular day. You can't bid all evening trips, for example. You're on the hook for (normally) 7 days, and it might be mornings, evenings, or a combination of the two. One contractual provision helps things a little bit: If you report before 8am on your first day of a tour, that time before 8 is paid hourly overtime, as is the time past 9 hours of duty. I've had tours recently with 4:30am reports on the first day, which stinks. But then I see that at $50.83 per duty hour, that early wakeup and 12-hour day turned into an extra ~$381. That eases the sting a bit.
And here's the best part, both for your sanity and your (and your passengers') safety: If you're too fatigued to fly, whether it's for a noisy hotel, ridiculous schedule, or whatever, you just call in and tell them you're fatigued. That's it. Somebody else flies your trip, and you go get some more rest. You just fill out a report online (takes about 30 seconds) giving a rough idea why you got fatigued. No discipline for it.
Being able to cry "uncle" and get some sleep, and
not have to risk a carpet dance in front of your chief pilot, is a
huge QOL factor that's absolutely critical to have, especially considering how varied our schedules can be. Quite the difference from my previous job, where I was told I "can eat lunch and dinner on your 3 hour break in the afternoon" because the turns during the rest of the day were 20 minutes long.
Any regrets, or was it the best career move you've made?
Best move I've ever made, hands-down. My only real regret is that I didn't make the move a few years sooner, but I honestly don't think I could have done it under the contract before the November 2005 one. I really appreciate what the guys before me did to help make this not just a better job, but a really
good job. We have an amazing group of pilots here.
I really like the variety. It sure beats flying in and out of the same hub over and over again. There are some cities you'll see a lot -- TEB, HPN, PBI, MIA -- and some beautiful places you'd have never seen at a regional. Dropping passengers off and spending the night in Cabo one day, then in Puerto Rico a couple of days later, makes for an interesting tour. Then you hit Teterboro, and wish you were still in Mexico.
One caution I'll add: while flying planes in our "business," it's only a small part of what a NetJets pilot does. You're also restocking and tidying up the airplane, chasing down rental cars with FBOs, ordering services (fuel, lav services, oil, window washes, etc.) as needed, and so forth. It might even involve rolling up a newspaper and pushing a dookie down into the lav. It happens.
(I find the "Elite Traveler" magazine especially suited to that task. Heh.)
You'll get a lot of support from the company (flight planning, ordering catering, etc.), but a lot of things fall on our shoulders to solve if they start to fall apart. If you can accept that stuff as an integral part of your job, rather than an adjunct to rush through and get back to the flying part, you'll adapt just fine. If all you want to do is drive the plane, it'll be a tough road.
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Being proactive and trying to solve the problems early goes a long way toward making life easier for our share owners. After all, they're not choosing us because we're $3 cheaper than the other guy. They're investing in us (literally) because we can provide a total package for them, and take care of
all the details with a simple phone call. And the pilots play a big part of filling in some of the gaps.
Here's a story from a couple months ago to give you an idea what I'm talking about... We're scheduled to take a gentleman and his wife into Truckee, but the weather's really not making it look good. There's not much of an instrument approach to begin with due to terrain. We
might get in, and the forecast is legal to launch, but looking at the weather myself, it just doesn't seem likely. So I offer that up to our owner, so he can decide himself whether he wants to try it, and divert, or do something else, like just go to Reno and drive.
His answer: "Guys, I trust your judgment. If you think it's not likely we'll get in, let's just skip it entirely and go to Reno, OK?" (I wish everybody were that understanding!)
We make one phone call to the company, and a new release is on the way, a rental car is booked for our owner in Reno, and we're on our way in a matter of minutes. Upon arrival in Reno, the couple finds the rental car ready and waiting for them, and they're on their way in no time. By planning ahead and heading off a potential problem, we probably saved them an hour of their time between skipping the inevitable missed approach at Truckee, and trying to scramble for a rental car in Reno when we dropped in unplanned at the FBO.
That kind of service is why this method of travel is so addictive, and why our clients keep coming back. (I wish I could afford a share!) Quite a contrast to my airline flight to work this week, where a mechanical problem caused me to miss my connection in MEM, and I got to enjoy the terminal for 7 hours to wait for the next flight. But hey, I got a $10 food voucher...
Hope that helps give you an idea!
