Originally Posted By: fdcg27
You get to fly and you don't have to spend money to do it.
You even get paid (not much) to do it.
Sitting in the front end of an RJ is every PP's wet dream.
You'll also likely be well positioned to move to a real airline in the near future.
Right seat in a 737 or single aisle Airbus will pay more and give you considerable advancement opportunities.
You get to fly, you have over $100,000 in student loans, and you don't have an income with which to pay it back, much less eat or pay your rent?
It's a dream for the first month...you're flying for free...yay!
But then reality sets in, you have no income, and it turns into a nightmare.
A nightmare of commuting to a place that you can afford to live on $20K/year, because you certainly can't live in New York, or Atlanta, or any of the airline hubs, but you can afford to live in your parent's house. A nightmare of sleeping in your car because you missed the flight home, of shaving in an airport bathroom, of getting reassigned and spending a few extra days on the road living from your roll-aboard, of getting up at 6PM to work until 1AM, getting a 3 hour nap at the hotel and flying again at 5 AM...because that's "legal".
Those kids that got hired into the right seat of an RJ in 2002 are still there. No move-ups because for a decade the majors weren't hiring. They've gotten married, maybe even have some kids of their own, but they chose a spouse with a good career because the spouse is carrying the load financially.
Until the UAL contract in 2012, that right seat in the Airbus or 737 paid $27/hour...not much more than the RJ, and you pay your own living expenses for your first 8 weeks in training. But the Majors only wanted pilots with Pilot in Command time...so the kid in the right seat of the RJ couldn't get hired...he could only hope that the Captain to his left was willing to take the pay cut from RJ captain to go to the FO spot in the majors so that he could move up.
Not well-positioned.
Trapped.
Under a mountain of debt and with only one skill.
Many quit. Many moved on. A few suffered through a decade of miserable hours, low pay, poor sleep, and threats from management when they were fatigued at the end of sixteen hours in that RJ front seat that you think is so glamorous.
You're a Private Pilot? Great. Go get your ATP and you too can "live the dream".
The only bright spot is this: the dam has burst, and the majors are hiring. You'll only have to spend a few years in that RJ right seat now, not the decade that the ones before you did...but you will need an ATP to even apply for the job, so you had better start building your hours...