palgia841

Hello all, this is my first post.

I have many friends and old students who wok at several regionals in the US. Namely, Expressjet, Skywest, ASA and Mesa. They all enjoy their jobs, however there are certainly some who enjoy a better QOL than others.
In particular, 2 close friends of mine work at Expressjet. Both are single and pretty well off financially (is there a relationship between the 2?!) so they tell me they "bid for QOL instead of pay". They explained to me that using the online bidding system they are able to "drop" the flights they don't want and "pick up" others. They are not very senior, one is 1.5years the other 2.5 yrs. Anyway, even only 6 months after getting hired, after holding a line, both of them were telling me how they were working something like 8-10 days in a month, more or less packed together. The result was that one of the pilots involved was able to spend around 18-20 days a month in his home country in central America. When I asked how this was possible, they told me that as long as there was coverage, they could drop as many flights as they wanted. Of course, they would only get paid for those hours flown.

Although they explained to me this system many times, I still don't fully understand how it works. I guess its one of those things you learn by doing.... here are some of the questions I have:

1. Who picks up the flights you drop? My understanding is that they go in a "pool" where anyone can add/drop from, and that any remaning flights that nobody picks up go to the guys on reserve. Is that correct?

2. Is there a possibility that nobody wants the flight you drop and it goes back to you? What if you already picked up another flight that overlaps the one you dropped? how could they give you back the original flight?

3. I obviously understand you can't drop flights during christmas, new years, thanksgiving, ect. BUT is it true one can modify its schedule to "pack" all the work say in 10 days at the beginning or end of the month and enjoy the rest of the month off? (and get paid only for what you worked) Are there any limitations to how little you can work per month? What about medical benefits, are they still in effect even though you flew only 40hrs for example?

4. Answer this question: during the 3 slowest months of the year (ie. NOT december or any other month with major holidays) what is the maximum number of time off you could get by dropping the MAX number of flights possible? Could you group these days in a row? PLEASE INCLUDE THE AIRLINE YOU WORK FOR.

I AM INTERESTED IN INPUT NOT ONLY FROM EXPRESSJET PILOTS, BUT ANY PILOT AT A US REGIONAL OR MAJOR. Please include your seniority if you are writing about your QOL, or at least include the minimun time required to acquire a certain QOL you described (that way we can compare apples to apples..... a 20yr B777 CPT with CAL is not comparable to a 1st yr FO at Eagle on ATR in San Juan...or for that matter a 10yr FO at Eagle on ATR in San Juan).


I am deciding between regional, corporate, fractional, 135 freigh, international or a full-time M-F 9-5 demo pilot position, and I am trying to weigh all things.
Unfortunately I am not able to afford to take as much unpaid time off as my friends at COEX (I am not single), but I still like to know I have OPTION, if I chose, to take 20 days off in a row without using vacation time.

THANK YOU FOR TAKING YOUR TIME TO READ MY POST. I appreciate all your replies.

palgia