Regional pay?

[DrewBlows]

It's already been said, but you should chose a company that will allow you to live where you want to live.

I commuted for three years, it was a very easy commute, but an enormous waste of time. At a regional airline you will generally work three or four days at a time. If you are on reserve you could work up to six days at a time, depending on the contract and your seniority you may only get one or two days off on a fairly regular basis. The point is you are going to have to commute six to eight times one way each month and you have to plan for half a day to commute each time. Which means you will spend three to four days each month commuting, while the guy who is based at home is sitting on his porch drinking a beer. The difference between the lowest paying regional and the highest isn't enough to offset three or four days of your life that you aren't getting paid for.

Commuting may work better if you fly heavys and are gone for a week or two at a time, but at the regional level it's an waste of your time. I'm not just preaching, I recently made a move to another company to be based at home. I'm still in training so I haven't seen the full benefits of being based at home but I'm looking forward to it.

 

[FlySacto]

The 16 yr old dude that just handed you your food at the Taco Bell drive up makes more $$

Nuf said: http://www.in-n-out.com/employment_restaurant.asp

 

[siucavflight]

In high school I worked at taco Bell, trust me the 40K I make as a regional FO is a heck of a lot more then what I was making at Taco Bell.

 

[dojetdriver]

AT XJT you can turn a week off into 20 days off for the month with no problems.

Don't want to be gone that long? then pick up trips as add pay, can take 14 days off in a row, work an extra 4-day and pull down 90-95 credit for the month.

That kinda depends on what, or more importantly, what BASE you are in.

 

[Caveman]

It's already been said, but you should chose a company that will allow you to live where you want to live.

I commuted for three years, it was a very easy commute, but an enormous waste of time. At a regional airline you will generally work three or four days at a time. If you are on reserve you could work up to six days at a time, depending on the contract and your seniority you may only get one or two days off on a fairly regular basis. The point is you are going to have to commute six to eight times one way each month and you have to plan for half a day to commute each time. Which means you will spend three to four days each month commuting, while the guy who is based at home is sitting on his porch drinking a beer. The difference between the lowest paying regional and the highest isn't enough to offset three or four days of your life that you aren't getting paid for.

Commuting may work better if you fly heavys and are gone for a week or two at a time, but at the regional level it's an waste of your time. I'm not just preaching, I recently made a move to another company to be based at home. I'm still in training so I haven't seen the full benefits of being based at home but I'm looking forward to it.

Very sound advice. Until you've lived the life of a commuter you have no idea what it's really like. It looks good on paper but the reality is much worse. Most of us do it and we all hate it. If at all possible work for a company where you can drive to work. If you can't do that work for a company where you have the most options. More available flights is better than a really short commute where you only have one or two chances on any given day to get to work. Avoid two leg commutes like the plague.

The harsh reality about regional pay is that their really isn't that much difference from highest to lowest. As others have pointed out the work rules are much more important. For example XJet, CHQ, SkyWest, CMR and some others have pretty good work rules. OTOH, Mesa's work rules are hideous. Other than 1st year pay all the airlines I mentioned pay about the same. If you live in a place where one of them has a domicile that you can hold apply to that company. Except Mesa. Their work rules are bad enough that a reasonable commute to somewhere else may be worth it.

 

[wms]

I know this has been asked a million times on here but who would you guys consider to be the best or among the best regional carrier as far as pay and QOL go? It's an open question I know and I've seen the pay scales but its hard to figure out what really happens with the work rules and pay, after looking at my own on some of these sites, what you see isn't always what you get. Thanks in advance.

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

 

[cobalt]

I think highest to lowest top three paying regionals are Horizon , Wisky, and Comair.

There is way more to it then just an hourly pay rate, but if airlinepilotcentral's pay grid is correct, i make more at XJT as 4th year CA ($67) than Air Wisconsin ($64) and Comair ($61), and horizon doesn't have a 50 seater to compare.

not slamming these other guys at all, I have no idea how their soft time, deadhead pay, vacation pay, etc etc... works, just comparing hourly rates. and it does look like some of their FO rates are better then ours.

 

[flyinboxes]

Thanks for the reply
Apache

 

[flyinboxes]

Thanks to all for the response. I have lived the life as a commuter pilot before, hit it pretty big and now may have to return due to a strike, furlough or shutdown. Time will tell. Just trying to get a feel for what's out there and if I even want to go back for a while and see or just drop it all together.....thanks again all.

 

[CRJFlyer]

@85K as a first year FO at NetJets.....I don't even remember what it was like working 5 years at the regionals........matter of fact what the he11 am I doing on this board..my bad..



Oh I almost forgot my regional lunch selection yesterday was some sort of salmon, with mixed veggies, and a piece of cake(I don't touch the cake though, gotta watch the spare tire)...man I miss living on pretzels and mixed snacks!!:laugh: