Regionals vs. Majors

JordanD said:
Good for you. Some of us don't care to live like hobos.
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The world is expensive.

At least for all the things that I want to do.

Money doesn't buy happiness but it's a great down payment.

Plus, the movie "Up" where the couple lived happily ever after (til one died) in the tiny little house subsisting on working at an amusement park is a fairy tale.

<—— Capitalist.
 
tlove482 said:
What an amazing country we live in, where 30k qualifies you to be a hobo!
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10k does. Derg pretty much said it. There's no reason a "respectable profession" should be making as much as a McDonalds manager.

Plus, 30k doesn't really cut it where I live, and I don't care to move to BFE just to be "comfortable." Im not saying I want to be able to buy a new Benz every year but it's nice to be able to pay bills and still be able to have some "fun" spending without having a heart attack when I check my bank account at the end of the month.
 
JordanD said:
10k does. Derg pretty much said it. There's no reason a "respectable profession" should be making as much as a McDonalds manager.

Plus, 30k doesn't really cut it where I live, and I don't care to move to BFE just to be "comfortable." Im not saying I want to be able to buy a new Benz every year but it's nice to be able to pay bills and still be able to have some "fun" spending without having a heart attack when I check my bank account at the end of the month.
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Yeah 10k was pretty bad. I see your point. I forget that some people live in high cost of living areas.
 
z987k said:
Try saving a reasonable amount for retirement on 60k. Because regionals by and large don't contribute much.
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This right here.

I'm glad I get a match, but there are (by comparison) bags of money falling from the sky in other parts of the industry. ;)
 
Autothrust Blue said:
I'm glad I get a match, but there are (by comparison) bags of money falling from the sky in other parts of the industry. ;)
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Recently a 12th year FedEX F/O showed me that, through a way to bid that is specific to conditions at FedEx, he made $390,000 last year.

That's obviously the very high end of things, but helps show that anyone who is qualified to move to the majors/legacies and doesn't because they don't want to temporarily upset their lifestyle to go to the bottom of another seniority list is leaving a lot of money on the table for the remaining earning years of their life.

I get it that money isn't everything...completely true. But I don't get someone who is unwilling to go through a relatively short period of discomfort (financially, lifestyle, etc) to ultimately earn a lot more money for basically performing the same job in a different airplane with a slightly different paintjob on it. That's thinking short game over long game, and that doesn't make sense to me.

To each their own, though.
 
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Money isn't everything, but to make a comfortable loving at a regional you have to bust your ass every month. Throw in a commute and it very quickly becomes "I have a house, fun car, and lots of cool hobbies...it's too bad I'm at work all the time and rarely get to enjoy them."
 
Screaming_Emu said:
Money isn't everything, but to make a comfortable loving at a regional you have to bust your ass every month. Throw in a commute and it very quickly becomes "I have a house, fun car, and lots of cool hobbies...it's too bad I'm at work all the time and rarely get to enjoy them."
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I enjoy my life very much. And I am an FO on 2nd year pay at the same shop as you, with a cross country commute. It's all about perspective. Life could always be worse. It could anyways be better, but there are people who work for Great Lakes.
 
Derg said:
Truth.

There's always a tornado brewing. You can hunker down in a doublewide (regional) or hunker down in an actual strucutre (major). Both may get destroyed, but you know the doublewide is going to go roundy-round and smash into the ground with certainty.
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Ha! This gave me my morning laugh. Where do you come up with these? ;)
 
Screaming_Emu said:
Money isn't everything, but to make a comfortable loving at a regional you have to bust your ass every month. Throw in a commute and it very quickly becomes "I have a house, fun car, and lots of cool hobbies...it's too bad I'm at work all the time and rarely get to enjoy them."
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I literally know an FO who, in the same sentence, bragged about how he made $260K but only spend a scant number of days at home because he'd go sit in DTW (lives in the SE) fishing for "green slips" and complaining about having no days off to see his kids or wife.

I think he's probably not even going to make the 66.49 average deceased age of a SouthernJetter.
 
Derg said:
I literally know an FO who, in the same sentence, bragged about how he made $260K but only spend a scant number of days at home because he'd go sit in DTW (lives in the SE) fishing for "green slips" and complaining about having no days off to see his kids or wife.

I think he's probably not even going to make the 66.49 average deceased age of a SouthernJetter.
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Screw that.

Unless there's an end game like retiring at 50, that seems like wasting the best part about this job, the time off.
 
Screaming_Emu said:
Screw that.

Unless there's an end game like retiring at 50, that seems like wasting the best part about this job, the time off.
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One upsmanship.

Part of me thinks he wanted the "Yeah, you upgraded but I probably earn more than you" — which is fine, I really don't care.

But I really don't want to work all that hard because life has already started and, with my family history, I'm certainly in my last 20 years right now.

It's not negative, it's actually from an empowering conversation I had with my father as he was dying at a somewhat "early" age.
 
Derg said:
I literally know an FO who, in the same sentence, bragged about how he made $260K but only spend a scant number of days at home because he'd go sit in DTW (lives in the SE) fishing for "green slips" and complaining about having no days off to see his kids or wife.

I think he's probably not even going to make the 66.49 average deceased age of a SouthernJetter.
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This is better than making $50K, sitting in base, having no room to green slip pick up premium time because you have no days off in the original award.

This is illustrative of the difference.
 
jspeed87 said:
Are the regionals the new career goal? I noticed on APC that 10 year captains easily exceed 60k. For somebody who lives in base and is not
very ambitious, what is the point of going to the Majors to start over again? Chase a bigger paycheck or stay local with good senority? It's not always bout the money.
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You're happy making 60k as a Captain? That's more in line with what a 2nd yr FO should get in my opinion. I know RJ FO's who make that. Lots of OT though.

60k doesn't get you very far in a major city either. I'm not talking about nyc or sfo. If you live in Miami or Denver, 60k doesn't get you very far.
 
I can't believe people are saying that $60k/yr means you're in the poor house. Yeah, $200k is obviously greater than $60k, but don't make it sounds like $60k is chump change. Median income in the US is aprox $50k. Senior guys at my last shop were pulling in $60-$70k and were doing just fine while raising a family. No they might not have the big Captain house, the newest boat or fly around in their own personal airplanes on the weekend, but they weren't poor by any stretch.

With that said, I understand the negative attitude towards being a career RJ pilot. That really shouldn't be anybody's goal with the current state of the industry.
 
Mark815 said:
I can't believe people are saying that $60k/yr means you're in the poor house. Yeah, $200k is obviously greater than $60k, but don't make it sounds like $60k is chump change. Median income in the US is aprox $50k. Senior guys at my last shop were pulling in $60-$70k and were doing just fine while raising a family. No they might not have the big Captain house, the newest boat or fly around in their own personal airplanes on the weekend, but they weren't poor by any stretch.

With that said, I understand the negative attitude towards being a career RJ pilot. That really shouldn't be anybody's goal with the current state of the industry.
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Actually, $60,000 a year is chump change. There is no good reason why we should make the personal sacrifices in our lives that we have to make as pilots and accept low pay for it just because the pay doesn't suck as bad as the " median US income ".
Airplanes are expensive to own, maintain, and operate, why should the pilots be expected to subsidize air travel for the general public and luxury travel market? Think of it this way... parts suppliers get theirs, fuel suppliers get theirs, insurance companies get theirs, MX suppliers get theirs, etc...
It's not personal, it's just business
 
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