The difference a year or two can make

The difference year or two can make....

So I am going to try my best to post this exactly on April 11 but forgive me if I miss by a day or two since I'm traveling..... So now lets flashback two years

April 11, 2010 - Dh gets released from the hospital after having back surgery, still currently employed though obviously not flying for XJT.

April 11, 2011- Dh starts first day of class at AAY!

April 11, 2012- 2nd year pay.... Thank god!!!

Looking back who could have ever guessed in 2010 that he would be back at work much less working for a new company in a years time??? That was a wild, quick, and unexpected plunge into first year pay and qol. And of course the famous question; Was it worth good seniority, benefits, and pay to make the change?

As we start into the second year at AAY and our checkbook happily looks at second year pay, our health insurance does not, this is by far my biggest disappointment/complaint with changing jobs. When Dh first started at AAY we had a ppo it wasn't great but still it was ppo. Now we have some kind of hsa crap, in which all the gains of our second year pay will be eaten up with health insurance costs.

Of course our qol has taken a hit starting at the bottom of any company will do that, so by that standards it's "normal". Dh hasn't been home much but that was expected (even though I complain about it). And I would be unfair if I didn't mention our qol would be great if we lived in base since he is doing all day trips. He has been fairly lucky to get a line 5 months after completing training,and he also (so far, knock on wood) got hired at the right time as there are now about 40 people under him. This may not seem like such a big number but in a company of less than 400 it is a decent amount.

It's still far to early in the game to know if this was the right move, in fact one of our ex-twa neighbors correctly said "you won't know if you picked right until the day you retire." This is so true given how volatile the airline industry these days.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained" is probably the best quote I can use for right now. We knew what we were dealing with at XJT but we also knew its limits. Starting on second year pay this year Dh will be within $10 an hour of what he was making at XJT as a 10 year captain. Is it the highest in the industry? No. Is it better than what he was making? Well not second year but it will be, and in far less than ten years, try three. Is its good as it could be? No it could always be better. And maybe that sentiment is why we chose to take this "leap of faith" AAY has the potential to be better than XJT was.


Now that the first year is over I'd can't say for sure that the move was a good thing, but I also can't say it was bad, and I think in the airline industry that is as good as it gets.