14 more A350s for SouthernJets

I’ve seen both sides.

I didn’t get in this business to fly Ma and Pa Kettle to Orlando. I want to see stuff and explore.

Seriously, from what I’ve seen, if A320 captain was the pinnacle of my career, well, I need “more”.

Selfishly, I could really care less about the hotel happy hour deal in Kansas City, that real good place all the crews go in Omaha for steaks or ”Woo hoo! Got the long Orlando over NYE!”.

I miss eating “Red Red” in a treehouse in Ghana, taking the bus over to Monaco to see the races on a NCE layover, taking a train up the Rhein, stopping in a random city and sampling the wines, arguing with shifty cabbies in Istanbul, getting the meat sweats at a Brazilian steakhouse in Sao Paulo, drinking crappy room temperature Carlberg with a bunch of angry soccer hooligans on the verge of a riot in FCO, eating some bomb-ass shawarma in Tel Aviv right before hitting a bar for live music in Old Port. I love to immerse myself in culture and learn about the world, maybe even scare myself a little.

Domestic can’t offer the level of cultural exploration that my personal satisfaction requires. Nothing against people who love it or airlines that solely fly it, but I need far more.

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This so much.
 
I didn’t get in this business to fly Ma and Pa Kettle to Orlando. I want to see stuff and explore.
#reality
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I guess to each their own. I just travel to Europe on vacation when I wanna see stuff. At $300 grand, I don’t care if I overnight in Paris, TX or Paris, France. :)


It’s nice to have the option of international. But TAFB matters too. We just got 5 day trips and I did one, it sucked when you’re used to 1-4 day trips. With young kids at home, it’s nice to be around frequently.
 
I didn’t have wide body aspirations of my own until I really started talking to the guys who do it. From the sounds of it, it has the ability to provide you the best balance of time off and money earned for less work (compared to domestic). So I do get it, trust me.

Personally I plan to hopefully get to the right seat in a 777 or 78 and stay there a long long time. Upgrade into a narrow body Captain job when I’m ready. Once I get where I want to be the sense of urgency will be gone to some extent. I just want to work and enjoy the ride. I try to enjoy things where I’m at but I find it getting tougher and tougher. 5 legs of regional flying and regional ops /day has a tendency to do that sometimes.
 
I’ve seen both sides.

I didn’t get in this business to fly Ma and Pa Kettle to Orlando. I want to see stuff and explore.

Seriously, from what I’ve seen, if A320 captain was the pinnacle of my career, well, I need “more”.

Selfishly, I could really care less about the hotel happy hour deal in Kansas City, that real good place all the crews go in Omaha for steaks or ”Woo hoo! Got the long Orlando over NYE!”.

I miss eating “Red Red” in a treehouse in Ghana, taking the bus over to Monaco to see the races on a NCE layover, taking a train up the Rhein, stopping in a random city and sampling the wines, arguing with shifty cabbies in Istanbul, getting the meat sweats at a Brazilian steakhouse in Sao Paulo, drinking crappy room temperature Carlberg with a bunch of angry soccer hooligans on the verge of a riot in FCO, eating some bomb-ass shawarma in Tel Aviv right before hitting a bar for live music in Old Port. I love to immerse myself in culture and learn about the world, maybe even scare myself a little.

Domestic can’t offer the level of cultural exploration that my personal satisfaction requires. Nothing against people who love it or airlines that solely fly it, but I need far more.

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Remember... the guy you are trying to explain this to thinks Sbarros is the pinnacle of pizza.
 
I guess to each their own. I just travel to Europe on vacation when I wanna see stuff. At $300 grand, I don’t care if I overnight in Paris, TX or Paris, France. :)


It’s nice to have the option of international. But TAFB matters too. We just got 5 day trips and I did one, it sucked when you’re used to 1-4 day trips. With young kids at home, it’s nice to be around frequently.

Which is why you should just be happy and stop trying to justify your life decisions by constantly questioning my dissatisfaction with domestic flying.

Personally, I’ve seen too much to be fulfilling droning around the US flying in and out of hubs with 13 hour layovers with that real good crew nacho special at the Doubletree. All of your quoted verse above are things I would not be happy with for the remainder of my career.

I wouldn’t personally be happy with effectively buying a few pallets of Rosarita pinto beans and eating them for three meals a day for almost 40 years and claiming that I’d be happy with that, at any pay rate, because I wouldn’t. Literally if my airline stopped flying internationally, I would get out of the business entirely or go fly expat in Asia and I’m completely serious.

Yes, there are people slogging it out at the regionals who would sell a kidney to be where I am and think I’m a dick for seemingly whining about a mainline 320 captain gig for SouthernJets and that’s cool, but gimme that sweet sweet 330/350/777 because everything in the international operation is more aligned with my career expectations.

You only have one life and it goes quick. Thinking you’re going to do it all in retirement is foolhardy endeavor.
 
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Granted I've never gotten to try long haul stuff, but I've found that my least favorite part of a country is the big city you fly into, ironically with the exception of Amsterdam. A cafe in Yerevan might as well be the same as Skopje, Munich, or Paris. It's sad to see all the guys who head to Narita time and time again, but rarely manage the hour trip into Tokyo, let alone exploring some of the other amazing day-trip places like Nikko. I need at least a week or two to really find what I'm looking for. For me, work trips have become not leaving the hotel in Sacramento, where I read up on and get ideas for the real traveling on my days off. But they pay that goes with long haul, yes please.
 
For me, work trips have become not leaving the hotel in Sacramento, where I read up on and get ideas for the real traveling on my days off. But they pay that goes with long haul, yes please.
Odd, because I can think of plenty to do in Sacramento, and if pressed I might even say I miss going there on the regular. Nor would I have originally expected to enjoy places like Redding, Arcata and yes, even Yuma as much as I did. Or Medford, even.

I want to think that this business has a little something for everyone; I am perfectly content to tank it up and blast off from Lauderdale and land in Los Angeles and call it a day. I'll put an askterisk on it by saying I haven't traveled nearly enough in my lifetime, but that's another completely separate discussion.
 
Granted I've never gotten to try long haul stuff, but I've found that my least favorite part of a country is the big city you fly into, ironically with the exception of Amsterdam. A cafe in Yerevan might as well be the same as Skopje, Munich, or Paris. It's sad to see all the guys who head to Narita time and time again, but rarely manage the hour trip into Tokyo, let alone exploring some of the other amazing day-trip places like Nikko. I need at least a week or two to really find what I'm looking for. For me, work trips have become not leaving the hotel in Sacramento, where I read up on and get ideas for the real traveling on my days off. But they pay that goes with long haul, yes please.

I know a former whale FO that has never ventured outside of ”Camp Narita” for the ten years he was on it. Basically wake up, hotel bar, Jet Lag cafe, hotel bar, bed.

Another reason I’m stoked about the HND slots because you’re always downtown and no need for the NEx.
 
I know a former whale FO that has never ventured outside of ”Camp Narita” for the ten years he was on it. Basically wake up, hotel bar, Jet Lag cafe, hotel bar, bed.

Another reason I’m stoked about the HND slots because you’re always downtown and no need for the NEx.

Narita is barely even Japan.
 
I get it. We don’t even have true international but I miss getting flying fish in Barbados. I miss the Bandeja Paisa I would get in Bogota. Now as a 190 Captain my overnights are DCA, FLL, JAX, CHS. If they ever get the pay fixed, I will give the supposed Europe type flying a shot. Life is too short to be excited about the “good” pub food across the street from the hotel.
 
It’s funny how perspective changes things. Many regional pilots look forward to the, “better” overnights in major cities that they’ll enjoy at mainline. I tend to think I’ll miss some of the small towns we overnight in, as I’ll likely never see them again on a bigger aircraft.


I agree. I do miss the small airports like Evansville (has a small museum in the airport), Erie, South Bend, State College, Pellston, etc.


And sits to pee. Definitely not alpha.

Ouch. Savage. But again the wife and kids use the bathroom too so I use it like they do and keep it clean without the tinkles. In hotels, the alpha comes out.
 
I agree. I do miss the small airports like Evansville (has a small museum in the airport), Erie, South Bend, State College, Pellston, etc.




Ouch. Savage. But again the wife and kids use the bathroom too so I use it like they do and keep it clean without the tinkles. In hotels, the alpha comes out.


Today’s phrase is “The Perils of ‘Overshare’”.

:)
 
It’s funny how perspective changes things. Many regional pilots look forward to the, “better” overnights in major cities that they’ll enjoy at mainline. I tend to think I’ll miss some of the small towns we overnight in, as I’ll likely never see them again on a bigger aircraft.

I do miss me some Kalispel, Monterey, Quebec City among many others.
 
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I might be wrong, but it seems like in a lot of cases with domestic guys don’t get to explore the NYCs, Seattles, LAs because you’re not on long layovers like international. Add in a dash of “airport hotel” and sprinkle with “American public transit sucks” and you’ve got a recipe for visiting places with all kinds of culture/history/food but no viable way to get to them.
 
The big thing about Intl growth is it adds positions at the top of the pay scale (and in theory depending on who you talk to, the desirability scale).

Filling each of the CA positions alone will result in 6-8 positions being opened down the list. You might not want it, but this is the kind of thing that might make what you want...obtainable.
 
I do miss me some Kalispel, Monterey, Quebec City among many others.
The hotels sure as crap are better where I work now, and since I spend at least 8 (ish) hours of every layover sleeping, that’s a big deal.

I actually miss going to Inyokern of all places, but that’s another story.
 
...Ouch. Savage. But again the wife and kids use the bathroom too so I use it like they do and keep it clean without the tinkles. In hotels, the alpha comes out.
Wait, what? I thought they were joking. Are you serious right now?

Edit: to add to this, who do you show alpha dominance over in a hotel room? I have so many questions now...
 
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