Whats so great about working at a major?

[hoover]

Its the little things Im interested in. Im single and dont mind taking a pay cut for a couple years. I just want to be treated like a human and not a robot. The schedules are killing me. 12-13 hr days, one day I start at 5am then a few days later start at 5pm. My company puts us in a hotel next to a highway and waffle house, nowhere to eat or even go for a walk to stay healthy. I need to start my job search.

Guess you should have done your research before jumping into this line of work. Welcome to the transportation business. It was this way long before you showed up, yet you feel you are being screwed over.carrier.

 

[Sedona16]

Its the little things Im interested in. Im single and dont mind taking a pay cut for a couple years. I just want to be treated like a human and not a robot. The schedules are killing me. 12-13 hr days, one day I start at 5am then a few days later start at 5pm. My company puts us in a hotel next to a highway and waffle house, nowhere to eat or even go for a walk to stay healthy. I need to start my job search.

Well for starters the stage lengths are typically longer at a major and I like this alot better. I would rather do one transcon (which equals one walk around, one set of checklists, etc) get up in cruise, eat a crew meal and read the paper errrr SOP, than multi leg up and downs with alot of unpaid, innefficient time. Thats not to say you wont have that from time to time depending on the airplane and even the 737 can get four legs a day but it is fairly rare from what I have seen. My best case is one leg followed by a 24 hour layover and a reasonable show time with rigs to pay protect. At my last regional I always felt worn out. I feel less worn out and sometimes acually rested now The job is better at a major hands down. You wont get weekends off for a while (well maybe yes on reserve) but overall its a nice gig. Hope that helps. PS dont go to Airways....that would not be good in my opinion. Delta, NWA, Continental, are the legacies I would look at in that order. SWA is a good paying job and you might be interested in that type of flying with good pay relative to the rest of the industry right now. Put an app in there too if you dont mind more legs and quick turns similar to your regional but with alot more pay. UPS/Fedex are excellent choices as well.

 

[IAHERJ]

Sorry, I just can’t refuse this:

My short answer to you is "yes"...

Now, I'll try and give you some meat and potatoes. Your 90K a year is about where you, as a 3rd year FO will end up at Delta(or CAL). I'm not going to talk about the freight guys (because I’d have to add an extra $40K onto the 3rd year pay number I’m quoting) as I assume you aren't discussing these as you listed the airlines in question as "majors".

The Hotels will be much better. (You’ll stay at the airport Doubletree as opposed to the airport Marriot ) You will fly better equipment and work with better flight attendants (I guess that’s like when the restaurant gives a senior discount to 60 “and better” – That must be what you mean by “better”), eat real food (if you say so) and have the option of flying a wide variety of aircraft to a wide variety of destinations worldwide (unless he ends up at SWA, Jetblue and some of the other majors). The list is too long to go into here and some things I'd like to say I'll get flamed for by the regional guys lurking on this site. (‘cuz so far, nothing you’ve said is going to get you flamed )

If you don't really like flying airliners, and are in it for the short term money(like 90K is real money long term); stay at your regional airline. Just to be seriously asking this question to begin with raises questions about your career goals (no – more like it raises questions about the viability of a career at some major airlines). If you aren't passionate about this career, I say stay where you are until you find another career that pays more. If you really got into aviation to fly the big planes around the world for real money, (you obviously still think its 1965 and you’ll be incredibly disappointed) so think about sucking it up and moving to the majors (if you’re willing to take a pay cut to get a raise sometime down the road in exchange for a worse schedule and missing all the days off you currently get).
Good Luck

Thanks for all the nice red corrections teacher. Are you feeling left out because nobody is talking about cargo carriers on this thread? My reference to the cargo carriers was that the money is even better there but you seem to have taken it as a shot. So be it. To try and compare airlines you don't work for to regionals is ludicrous. I refrain from speaking out about quality of life issues at ABX/UPS/FEDEX etc. because I don't know much about the day to day things there. I think maybe you should do the same with regards to the legacy airlines.

 

[IAHERJ]

90K probably puts you ahead of 90% of this country, and yet all you do is complain. Get some perspective.

This is a forum for airline pilots in the Majors section. My point was that settling for 90k in this job when he is single, young and can make the jump where he will top out at more than twice that amount is short sighted. The fact that 90K is better than 90% of this country just says little about where this country is headed(but that is a thread for another time). I'm not complaining about a thing but rather pointing out that the career he got into pays a whole lot better down the road if short term sacrifices are made now. Sorry if I offended you but I compare my pay to the pay of others at other airlines, not other careers.

 

[Flopgut]

You sound like someone who would especially enjoy widebody [international] flying. Really great hotels, interesting places, food, etc. Get south of Mexico and you'll like the women.

 

[DASHDRIVER]

My question to people who discuss this question is, what do you want out of this career? Do you want to fly a big airplane? International? Many different kinds of flying? Home a lot? Biggest paycheck? Live at home? In the industry right now we have something that does not come around very often. Choice... United, Fedex, Regional, Corp, Fractional: everyone needs pilots. What I found important after spending 2 years commuting to PHL was being home, not commuting, and finding a good total compensation package. I found Midwest in my back yard and couldn't be much happier. Except for first year pay of course.

Was it worth it? I left what most people would say is a top level regional carrier at AWAC to go to a small 38 aircraft airline. I say yes much better, but those are my individual circumstances. Good Luck.

DD

 

[FLYLOW22]

I need to start my job search.

Remember that there is life outside the 121 options too. Nice options.

 

[FLYLOW22]

90K probably puts you ahead of 90% of this country, and yet all you do is complain. Get some perspective.

90K is nothing compared to what it needs to be (used to be). Inflation, the weakening dollar...

I, for one, have never compared myself to 90% of this country. I won't start now. I didn't get into this biz to make what 90% of the country makes. 90% of the country hasn't done what I've done to get where I am.

The same applies to the rest of you 10%ers.

 

[catIIIc]

Retirement, even with the A plans going away the large B funds that CAL, UAL, and DAL offer give you a lot more to your retirement then any regional.

 

[The Victors]

This is a serious question. Is it really that great to take a pay cut for a long time to go to a major from a regional? Is quality of life much better? Hotels? Schedules? I see people are fighting to get into a place like Delta. Please explain what kind of improvments I will find when leaving a captain job at a regional to go over to the majors. I make about 90k a year and have my weekends and holidays off now. So its tough to get motivated to leave, even though I dont really like my job.

If you get some offers on your job search, make sure to choose wisely. With oil at or above $100, it might not be a good time to be on the bottom of the list in 08'.