Pro-de-motion
As of today, I'm officially a First Officer at American Airlines. This is mostly a promotion from my previous role, but also somewhat of a demotion. It's a somewhat unprecedented circumstance; one that's unique to this current moment in the airline industry.
Regional vs. Mainline
The industry is separated into two distinct parts: Regional airlines and mainline airlines. Mainline airlines have instantly recognizable names: American, United, Delta, Southwest, Hawaiian, etc. Regional airlines are all lesser known: PSA, Piedmont, Endeavor, GoJet, SkyWest, and on and on. These regional airlines operate smaller jets on shorter routes for a mainline airline's sub-brand (American Eagle, Delta Connection, United Express, etc.). They are mostly staffed by crew members that are beginning their airline careers; upon graduating from college or retiring from military service, pilots can expect to spend anywhere from three to ten years working at a regional airline before moving up to a mainline carrier.
This separation serves many purposes, most are beneficial to both pilots and airlines. From the pilot perspective, it provides real-world experience operating at an airline that caters to their relative inexperience. For the airlines, it offers across-the-board cost savings and allows them to focus their training departments on the experience levels of their students; regionals can focus on introducing the basics while mainlines can begin with the understanding that every recruit knows what it means to be an airline pilot.
My Regional Experience
I spent the last seven-and-change years at PSA Airlines, which is one of three wholly-owned regional subsidiaries of American Airlines. PSA's planes bear the moniker "American Eagle," along with its sister companies Piedmont and Envoy. The selfish advantage of working for a wholly-owned carrier is that they offer a flow-through program to American Airlines (advertised as five years after date of hire).
PSA has a Cadet Program, the launch of which was a "right place, right time" moment for me. Purdue was one of the early partner universities, and at the time of launch I was nearing the maximum flight time limit to be eligible. I was expedited into an interview the very next day, and following the success of that, was inducted into the program; my job offer secured in only my Junior year.
My time at PSA was enriching. I started as a First Officer, hired right at the federally-mandated minimum 1,000 hours. I built 1,000 more hours of experience in the right seat and readied to upgrade to Captain when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, leading to a furlough and subsequent Captain downgrades (i.e. return to First Officer status). I was neatly positioned to neither downgrade (hadn't upgraded) nor be furloughed (ample seniority). For almost a year longer, I continued to operate as a First Officer, amassing yet another 1,000 hours before finally upgrading to Captain.
By the time I upgraded, every mainline carrier had begun hiring aggressively. Nobody knew how long COVID lockdowns would last, so every carrier halted hiring and prepared to hunker down for years. When the world opened up and pent-up travel demand roared back, the massive demand for pilots immediately revealed itself.
I had applied to United amidst this fervor, and less than a year into my tenure as Captain they invited me in for an interview. With cosmic timing, PSA announced improved pay rates for Line Check Airmen (LCA) the same week. Becoming an LCA was already the next goal on the horizon for me. It was something I signaled the desire to do during my Cadet interview, since I loved flight instruction so much.
The pay PSA was offering LCAs was competitive with United, offered me the privilege of retaining my seniority, and would keep me in the pipeline to American (my original airline of choice), so I declined the interview offer and poured myself into preparing for the lengthy interview process to become a Line Check Airman. You know how that process ended.
Filling My Time
I spent nearly three years as LCA, and from the first day through the last, I maintained that it was the best job I have ever had. I couldn't report to work without a silly grin. I had the tremendous honor of introducing pilots to the airlines, sharing their fresh-eyed enthusiasm, and getting the personal gratification of watching challenging concepts "click" for the first time. In addition, I enjoyed all of the standard benefits of being a senior pilot.
Extracurricularly (ed: seven syllables!), I joined the mentorship and recruiting side of the Cadet Program almost as soon as I started at PSA, extending the generosity to the next generation that was once extended to me. After the COVID freeze, I took on a leadership role in the Cadet Program to help shape it for the future, including designing an entirely new interview focused on maintaining equity and standardization. Referencing this mentorship experience, I then took over the reins for PSA's Direct-Entry Captain Mentorship Program. Joining an unfamiliar company and leaping straight into a leadership role as Captain is almost impossibly challenging, so this program provided invaluable guidance and mentorship for these seasoned new-hires.
The Decision: Pro-de-motion
It was for all of these reasons that I was conflicted when my number was finally selected for flow to American. I loved my job, I loved the people I worked with, I loved the schedules I was receiving, and — yes — I loved the pay. This would all be changing at American. I would return to the right seat, work with people from a far broader set of backgrounds and experience levels, return to battling for the least-wanted schedules (likely being based in an entirely different city), and — for a handful of years — take a sizable pay cut.
Most of this will prove to be temporary, of course, and ten-years-from-now Chris will undoubtedly thank me for deciding to flow when I did. But willingly thrusting oneself into discomfort isn't natural. Constantly reminding myself that discomfort is both normal and necessary was key to committing myself to this decision.
I'm now in Fort Worth, Texas (yee-haw!) and am officially the first PSA Airlines Cadet to complete the flow to American. I have only a faint idea of what the future holds. I know the next few weeks will consist of classroom training, and at some point in the near future I'll transition to aircraft-specific training. Once that's complete, I'll begin flying the actual aircraft, paired up with a Line Check Airman — the tables turned.
I'm deep in the thick of discomfort, but I'm holding onto every shard of excitement I have about beginning this next chapter. Whatever the future holds, I'm enormously excited and humbled to be able to say (without any caveats or wholly-owned explainers), "I am an American Airlines pilot."