Oh ok, so travel benefits are there and pilots are able to fly internationally at discounted rates?
Do you work for RAH? If so, is the information on the site (especially regarding cancellation of flights and instability of bases) current and/or accurate? one JCer mentioned that there was a 98% approval for strike in the past. Has mgmt changed things or are most of the pilot group there still unhappy.
The instability of bases is inherent to the airline industry but chances are that if you are assigned LGA, IND, PHL, ORD or DCA than you base probably isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Bases like DEN, GSO, SDF, CLE, etc are probably not that stable compared to major hubs and the company headquarters.
Yes, you get travel benefits including international travel but keep in mind that travel benefits are not like they used to be. You have to remain extremely flexible and always have a backup plan. So if you can't home from London, take the train to Paris and try to get out from there. We can buy Zeds as well.
Yes, I work there. The cancelling of flights has only happened once to me since I've been here and it didn't affect me much as I'm on reserve and live in base. It did however screw the rest of the crew because they were commuters. The captain had to pay for a hotel room and the two FA's slept...well, lets just say they couldn't afford a hotel room. Additionally, not getting cancellation pay definitely cost them money as well. This place definitely could use some work rules but in general, its better than it was at Colgan. Scheduling treats us pretty well compared to Colgan schedulers and the hotels are ten times nicer than what Pinnacle pilots get.
There are a lot of unhappy FO's here and a few disgruntled captains (again, just talking about the Republic cert) but for the most part it really isn't that bad. The crews are pretty good (for the most part) but don't really go out that often as the Republic cert has a lot of older Captain's that are slam clickers. Additionally, we fly really nice equipment (although, way below what we should be getting paid) and I haven't had a Mx cancellation yet (knock on wood). They seem to just downgrade or upgrade the equipment to make sure the flight goes. The captain hourly pay scale here is actually higher than some majors pay for bigger equipment and on par with the rest of the regional industry. Its the lack of work rules and the FO payrates that are abysmal.
Reserve here is actually not half bad as reserves get a 4 hour min guarantee each day they are activated and you generally get flown a lot. I have been crediting around 85 hours a month on reserve and only flying around 70 so its not great and not bad either. If you commute your QOL will be vastly different as you can't bid for reserve periods like at Pinnacle or other airlines. There is only one reserve period 0300-1500 but that is moved so you always end up with a later reserve shift on your last day due to being activated days prior. When I commuted to PIT for my first month, you had to commute in the day before and always got stuck commuting home the day after. So your mileage may vary based on your situation.
I think Republic has a positive outlook as far as the industry is concerned and if they can get a new contract, it will be a good place to be. As far as the strike, we will see what happens once the election is over but I knew the chances of it happening before the election was nil. The NMB turned down the request for self help but has assigned a new Senior Mediator that may be able to expedite things a little.
All in all, you could do much worse but you could also do better.
