1hokiefan

I am fortunate to have a choice between Eagle or XJT. At least I should paperwork still pending. I know the industry can change overnight but any thoughts of the better choice?

samballs

Tough

Eagle = who knows which way the diversification will go, could be great, could be bad (if it happens). But I have been at 3 wholly owned and I'm starting to think being a stand alone company is better than being a wholly owned.

XJT = In the mix with ASA now, which has a ton of DL 50 seater's, and DL can't wait to get rid of those (personally think their 50 seaters will be next). And who in the world knows what will come of the United/Co merger.

So in the end, choose either and in 7 years when your on your 3rd airline you can write the above paragraph.

Flyby1206

Yea, both are good companies. Tough call. Which one will have the easiest commute, or can you live in base at one of the carriers?

TheBills

Do you have a penny? Heads will be eagle, Tails will be XJT/ASA. Thats probably the easiest way to decide. Its all luck and timing, so hopefully you get lucky.

AtlCSIP

I had the same decision last year. I took ASA because I live in Atlanta. If I had made my decision based of the interview experience, I would have chosen Eagle.

I asked the same question and those wiser than me on this forum suggested taking the one where you could live in base, or the one with the easiest commute. They were correct. I am currently on reserve sitting at home with a 2 hour call out starting at 9 a.m. this morning. I woke up with my wife next to me, I washed my truck, I am about to take my washer to get fixed, then will go in to MY kitchen to prepare lunch. After that, I am going to file some bills, get my tax stuff together, and take my wife to a movie, assuming I don't get a call. I couldn't have done any of this commuting, and I am happy with my decision.

By the way, FlyBy1206 will give you the most informative, least biased information of just about anyone on this forum, so pay attention to him (at least I think he's a him).

TheBills

This is great advice. However, based on the fact that bases open and close all the time, pick the one where the worst case commuting scenario would be OK. Example, XJT had an IAH base forever, and because of the massive cuts to that base, people that were once driving to work are now commuting.

blastoff

Just food for thought, there are probably enough young guys around now who don't remember, but ExpressJet, the company, used to be properly known as "Continental Express" when it was wholly owned by Continental and had to change its name when it was spun off from CAL in the early 2000's. Similar situation when ASA was spun off from Delta. Nearly a decade of ups and downs followed to get to where we are now. Read the Eagle situation carefully as it appears to be setting up for a repeat of the XJT spin-off if AMR simply spins Eagle off without selling it to a healthy Holding company and drops the "American" from Eagle, or gets some other generic company name.

With all that said, still a crapshoot.

JetPipeOverht

Go to ASA, more 'projected' movement and not the chance of being sold off as we are actively searching and acquiring other airlines to become a ' Super Regional '....Then again, for me 5 years ago it was between ASA and Xjet, Xjet was who I really wanted to be with ( EWR commuter ) but ASA was such a great fit I chose them- Agreed...It's always a crapshoot but be happy with the hand you play.

1hokiefan

Thanks for all the insight. Im definitely not a newbie, and I won't move for an airline again. Ive done one charter, this will be my third 121 carrier, and my most recent furlough from a pretty large fractional. Held out as long as I can wait for anything else. Carpentry work is, well too much like work. With my track record thought I would reach out before I went with my own gut feel again.

Flyby1206

Haha youre too kind! Glad to hear things are working out well with ASA, you made a good choice.