How long were you at the regionals and where did you go from there?

A total of about 8 years.

But don't get into the mindset that once you're out of the regionals everything gets better. Minor things change but its basically the same job with more pay and benefits.
 
People think once you cross the bridge that all the woes of the industry suddenly are left behind.
 
How is it 'woeful' that folks at your place can be a captain pretty much right away, but nothing in sight to upgrade for many at a lot of fee for departure carriers?
 
A total of about 8 years.

But don't get into the mindset that once you're out of the regionals everything gets better. Minor things change but its basically the same job with more pay and benefits.
Airlines are airlines, if that was the point. They are all an assembly of people and airplanes designed to make money while providing transportation. The changes are, in my view:
(1) how much you are compensated for your pilot service, and
(2) the people that you work with.

Not to sound like a Delta ad, but the airplanes really are largely the same, and the differences between where I work and Widget World are (1) how much I'm paid and (2) the folks I work with*. The issues that Captain Dad and I have are roughly the same, but he's paid a lot more for them. There is a certain amount of "welp, this is the job," that comes with working in transportation: the various demands that are put on you can be heavy. It works for some people. For some it really doesn't.

I would also add that this is a different job when you commute. I get home, I walk to BART and 50 minutes later I'm walking to my house. This is far and away different from getting done and jumping into an airline seat for 2-5 hours, then surface transportation. (Source: experience.)

* And I really really like my coworkers here for the most part. The average feeling I have towards them is "This is going to be an awesome trip to the frozen tundra, let's enjoy it!"

Things do get better however some people will always be miserable.
Yep.

Commuting is a choice.
That's my line.

And, um, only sort of a choice. When they move the airplane out from under you, it's a little different.
 
Like @Seggy said, that's a choice, my friend. I bailed out of the industry because I wasn't willing to commute or to move. If you've decided to commute, then you sacrifice some QOL in exchange for being able to live wherever you want. Choices, choices.
It is, and it isn't.

On the one hand, I accept assignment to any base and equipment in our system just by coming into work, in accordance with The Agreement. On the other hand, you'd better believe I'm going to wail just a little bit if suddenly I am displaced to Chicago. (Then I'll probably move in lieu of wedging into an airline seat for hours on end, and then discover how cheap the Midwest really is.)

It's more complicated if you're a family man or have other circumstances, and it's very different (as it was in your case) when they move the airplane out from under you. Uprooting kids from schools and communities is a lousy thing to have to do, for instance.
 
Well aware of that.

It's still a choice though!
Sure. To me, it's a Hobson's choice: the radically different nature of this job when you don't commute, plus my lack of attachments, makes it so very easy to chase airplanes. (And to a lot of folks with families, I think it's similarly Hobsonian.)
 
It's more complicated if you're a family man or have other circumstances, and it's very different (as it was in your case) when they move the airplane out from under you. Uprooting kids from schools and communities is a lousy thing to have to do, for instance.

You realize that people in most professions do this on a semi-regular basis and have no other option, right?
 
You realize that people in most professions do this on a semi-regular basis and have no other option, right?
I suppose I don't, actually.

Most all of the "professionals" that I know who are admitted to practice various things in California are here, and are staying. This might be the result of my living in the bubble that is the People's Republic of Kalifornia, though.
 
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