dera

And how much fractional 135 experience you have to make that statement? For QOL, you need to find a good 91 gig. Most 135 jobs work way harder than regional guys. Only exception would be if you live in a small town with very limited commuting options and the company buys you a ticket to work.

Flexjet would be the last choice for QOL or pay. And even worse if majors are your goal. Unless you are prior military/got a strong resume otherwise.

highfarfast

If your goal is to work at a major airline. Get a job at an airline.

Also, I have not heard great things regarding quality of life with the fractionals.

jake cutter

Totally depends on equipment and base. Commuting to reserve on the 145? Yeah I see your argument. In base on the 175? Easy street.

BigZ

Best of luck and I hope you find what you are looking for there.

See the quote above. No one can make that choice for you. For every guy that leaves Envoy for a 135/91k there is a guy that leaves 135/91k for Envoy.

Varsity

2 years experience. How much do you have?

Flex starting pay for FO's is like 85k. That's more than 5 year Envoy captains. It's not even close. Add in no commuting, no 6 leg days, flying to garden spots.

It's really not even close.

dera

I did about a year of 135. I loved it, but I want to work for a major airline one day.

My good friend at Flex just did this in one day: DAL->MAF->DAL->AUS->DAL.
Your garden spots aren't the same as mine clearly. Working 8 days in a row also isn't for everyone.

To make 85k first year at Flex, you work 208 days a year. That's a lot. Not sure about QOL with that schedule.

135 you will make more money, no doubt about that. I took a pretty huge paycut coming to Envoy. I also live in base, so that's a big QOL item for me.
But OP said he wants to work for a major airline. And Flex isn't the best way to get there.

Cyio

I have without exception heard from friends that left the 135 world that they wouldn't go back for all the money in the world. I think people fantasize it and dont realize how much time you need to put in for the increase in pay.

Anyway, I am sure there are those that love it, I just haven't met them yet. To each their own however.

DreadWing

Fact. I spent fifteen years in 135/91k/91 and hated every minute of it. My QOL has gone up several orders-of-magnitude since I made the decision to come here; that's an objective claim I can make with conviction for just about every comparable dimension of QOL between airline/everything else. All except in the domain of hotel points. That's been something of a sacrifice...along with a rather huge cut in pay (wasn't worth it, anyway).

Not only that...pay is completely ARBITRARY outside of fractionals. Same goes for "work rules" (if any exist).

People get off on a lot of bizarre forms of masochism. Try and imagine a permanent reserve schedule. Being shipped around the country with bought airline tickets AS A PASSENGER isn't quite as "glamorous" as it sounds, especially when half of the airports your aircraft are sitting at require finding and driving a rental car. I've never had anything approaching that kind of fatigue whilst working here.

The ones that REALLY "love it" (i.e. "I'd NEVER go to an airline!") in 135/91 almost ALWAYS have something wrong with them (i.e. failed checkrides, violations, criminal convictions, etc). The rest of us were simply trying to survive, go home and do the girlfriend/wife thing, and try to get calls from legacy/LLCs.

Fractionals are the closest thing to the airlines (union protections, work rules, DEFINED "days off," training standards, yearly pay increases that will NEVER gain parity with major airlines), but you WILL work 20X more/harder, and under FAR worse conditions.

highfarfast

Eh, there are some good points here. But I will say there are really good part 91 gigs out there (and really bad ones too). However, even with the good ones, you're always having to think about the next job which isn't always a great position to be in.

dera

Well, apart from Flexjet, who just decert'd their union...