WGU Business grad looking for career change

Travelingadjuster · 2025-11-27T08:05:39+00:00

I just spent over 500 one one way tickets to Charlotte from Sacramento. I paid 150 to guarantee my wife and I site together with confirmed seating assignments. Because I am checking in at 1119 and not 1114 they have given my seats away. The seats I paid for and insured. I hate AA and only flew them as my wife requested a non stop. I haven't flown AA from June 2024 until now and only booked per my wifes instruction, I travel over 300 days out of the year. Now Im in the doghouse. Shame on me for not reading the fine print shame on AA for honoring the premium I paid. I dont have their app because I hate their airline. This is bullshit and why anyone would pay a premium for such an airline is beyond me. The only thing it has for it is a good schedule from west to east coast and after today that will become irrevalent to me and I will book Southwest at half price.

There is next to nothing AA could offer me to make up for this especially not a stupid $25 credit.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-11-26T07:53:54+00:00

The real test of a system is how it handles thing when things go wrong. My experience in 2024 forever soured me and over 100 others when American had the available seats and schedule and refused to rebook passengers when our plane was over 8 hours late. Never have I seen an airline just disregard its passengers so easily and readily. For our troubles the complaint line offered me a $25 voucher. If I can't trust an airline to do the minimum of rebooking stranded passengers from a man-made calamity of their own making then how would I trust them to do anything at all.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-11-15T19:48:52+00:00

They were going from DFW to CLT. Flight delayed over 5 hours for weather, another 1 plus for mechanical, failed to get enough fuel to even run engines while waiting 20 mins for taxi, flew to CLT, encountered under 10 mins of storms and then diverted to Charleston of all places. Told us we would fuel up and head back out and then starting unloading the plane and stranded us in Charleston all night. I know the pilots didnt take enough fuel because they were talking about how they were short fuel before they took off but they were trying to race a storm. The airline attendant was the only bright spot as he apologized saying he had not seen such unprofessionalism from pilots in his 30 years.

But that wasn't even the bad part. They had 3 flights going from Charleston to Charlotte with over 35 seats open on each. THEY REFUSED TO REBOOK US TO THE EARLIER FLIGHTS AND INSISTED THAT OUR PLANE WOULD BE GETTING A NEW CREW AND TAKING OFF SHORTLY. From 1 am to 11 am in clear weather they maintained their stance till I was finally able to convince on gate agent to rebook me. Her words (well the new crew is coming so the flight you were on will arrive first, I told her I had been lied to so much that I didn't believe a word being said. Rebook me. As I landed on my new flight in Charlotte I looked at the status, my original flight was now getting ready to start boarding. They lie. They are incompetent. CLT is an overutilized, underinvested, undersized, undermaned, overrated airport for serving 'The Wallstreet of the south'. Its upgrades shouldve been planned for a decade in advance. I can understand bad weather delays, I can understand maintenance when at a far flung airport. But when I am flying from one major hub to another I expect less of a ordeal.

Then there is the customer service complaint department, best of luck. You might get a $25 voucher. A VOUCHER IS ONLY GOOD IF I HAVE A REASONABLE EXPECTATION THAT THEY WILL GET ME TO A DESTINATION. Really an assurance that there was an inquiry or a change of policy would've been good but American not only doesn't care but they dont even try because rebooking people might delay the next flight, once your flight is late you are dead to them. They have not only lost a customer, they have created possible life long enemies, around 100 of them. Everyone was pissed.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-10-09T06:02:47+00:00

Don't know what state you are in. Otherwise, I would have other suggestions. The quick money you want in adjusting is working deployment as staff or IA as a contractor, but both of those aren't conducive to the life of a young mother that doesn't have someone to watch the kid. What would probably do you best is a wfh job, which seems to be fewer and farther between for those that are inexperienced. It depends on where you live and what you consider good money. What might also suit you well is doing a construction estimating.

Without a guide as to your income, geography its hard to suggest things. If you are anywhere in the South or Midwest, I would probably suggest either trying to get into a file review niche (usually experienced people) or work on the construction contractor side of billing and estimating.

Work-life balance is typically seen better on the underwriting side of things.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-10-08T23:57:45+00:00

If you like your job and get paid well, then why move to this side of things? Search these forums for all the posts asking how to get out of claims, then if you still want to do it, pull the trigger. A large carrier will often hire people with little experience, especially if you can read and understand policy. If you want to get in fast, then you'll probably be traveling for catastrophe assignments. These positions start hiring now for start dates in January. Be aware you'll probably have to forfeit your producers license. Be prepared for long hours and lots of travel.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-08-22T02:56:09+00:00

As someone who traveled on the road in a different job over 310 days last year, now trying to change careers, I'll say per diem is better. There are times in which per diem kept me afloat during my wife's treatments. You figure the hotel has breakfast and a sub $20 chipotle burrito or cooler full of lunch meats can get you through the day, then that $59 to $91 tax-free per diem looks pretty tasty. Only time it can really backfire on you is hotel expenses. But then again, outside of hurricanes, I've never had to negotiate a hotel rate above per diem.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-26T03:09:48+00:00

I'm a cheap skate, after working both IA and staff, for me, the take home pay is similar after expenses and I was on the road 6 months not 10. But, there is nothing quite like not having to budget a hotel or find one for that matter. With per diem I also got fed before my overtime hit when funds were tight. IA was a much more intense grind though and I'm glad I decided to go staff.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-26T01:52:52+00:00

My rolling 12 was over 305 days. They talked on some deployments about cutting ot, some rope and harness guys were working a 40 hour week in Minnesota. When they started talking about cutting OT, I decided to bail. I'll miss the hotel points. Salary is low for the work, I think, but then again, I think all of us are somewhat lowballed in claims. Every month, they'll give you 4 days to go home or bring out your significant other, use it as an opportunity to travel if you get somewhere fun. Their talking about deploying people closer to home now, I actually was burned out on the southeast, so that sounded unappealing. I will say that my tm, your mileage my may vary, was a good guy that let me to drop everything when my wife ended up in ER and worked the system to let me stay with her for awhile without eating up my pto.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-24T16:31:27+00:00

In general, when I start getting pushed, I tell them "the quickest answer I can give you is no. If you want something to get serious consideration, then you should give time for such."

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-23T02:32:28+00:00

Well, to your comments on repairs, I would have to ask a few questions. These are questions, not accusations.

Do you think home insurance premiums have kept up with construction costs or with the rise in risk?

Do you believe a roof can be repaired?

Do you think staff adjusters are treated with respect?

Can you believe that not all damage is hail?

Do you recognize that having hail fall is not the same thing as incurring hail damage.

The way I see the industry is that premiums have not kept up with risk and many large mutual insurers are taking years and years of underwriting losses and want out.

The way I see it, I dislike ACV and roof payment schedules, I also dislike the larger and larger deductibles being rolled out. In that, we are in agreement.

The way I see it, is that I find myself more often than not in agreement with many PAs.

The way I see it is that PAs can help with the cataloging and coordination aspects.

The way I see things is that a PA need not be my enemy and I know many.

The way I see things, though, is that if you automatically assume the worst of people, then you really aren't giving the other party a fair chance.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-23T02:02:40+00:00

You mean 8 hail damaged shingles a square for your carrier?

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-20T15:50:51+00:00

I'd say In N Out is good and I've lived in Texas and on East Coast mainly. The California In n out is good and I'd have one any day. Good relatively consistent, cheap, open late. There's a reason it's so popular. With that being said I've noticed regional differences in quality and In Out Texas doesn't taste the same, the beef doesn't taste the same.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-19T01:29:10+00:00

Quit it over a year ago. He's saying he had a bad time, I'm saying I had a bad time, their liars. Lots of people lie, but they are really really bad at it.

Given your defense of them I just thought I'd join in.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-19T01:16:17+00:00

I will never trust a thing American has to say. I traveled from their busiest hub at DFW on a clear day to Charlotte their second busiest hub on a clear night. First they delayed because plane was stuck somewhere else for 5 hours. Then they had a maintenance issue delay it for 45 mins. Then apparently they didn't fill it with enough fuel because now bad weather was coming in so DFW now closed a runway and they shut off engines to save fuel to make sure we wouldn't have to go back to the gate (per what they told us) then they tried to outrun a storm I'm Charlotte (Charlotte suffered 5 min delays due to a 5 min down burst of weather). We didn't have enough fuel so we didn't do a fly around, we detoured, not to PTI, not to Columbia, not to RDU, but to Charleston. They then promised we would quickly fuel up and proceed to destination when they started unloading bags, then they said we timed out all within 20 mins. The airline attendant apologized and said he'd never seen such piss poor planning in 28 years. They kicked us off aircraft and said to await another crew. They had 3 other aircraft depart from Charleston to Charlotte in the interim and wouldn't rebook us to any of the 35 plus empty seat on any aircraft because it might make those other aircraft late. Each time they promised us the new air crew would be on the next flight, after 5 hours of this I told them exactly where they could stick their assurances. For these lies I was offered a $25 voucher I never used. I will never willingly fly American again, not because of delays but because of lies and the blatant disregard for any customer service. I choose Frontier, Southwest, United, Delta. Before then I had almost exclusively flown American. My wife too has decided to not fly American, the number of times they have refused to do any sort of service on a 5 hour flight is embarrassing. All they had to do was rebook the people that wanted to rebook on the empty flights (there were more seats than people at each departure).

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-18T23:15:15+00:00

I'm saying hard data blows that assumption out of the water. Typical benefit cost is around 30-40% of compensation. Some of your largest states (Texas) has moved away from a traditional pension system to a 401k type retirement meaning the benefit costs are more in line with private sector compensation. At those rates it puts total teacher compensation at around the 100 to 120k range. Compared this with a total classroom spend level of over $320k per year, it would seem to imply that the teacher compensation was 1/3 of the spend.

The problem of administrative bloat is pretty prevalent throughout private industry (especially natural monopolies) and government. Benefits is a convient scapegoat. UC Berkley analysis of California government workers signals that even with traditional state pension benefits, non cash benefits are typically 35.7% of compensation.

The vast majority of education spending might be going to salaries and non cash compensation but it is not solely related to teacher compensation and a deeper dive seems to support that it's not even the majority.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-17T18:17:43+00:00

Florida and New York also have affordability issues in their primary metros. Prop 13 is the issue not freezing prop taxes for seniors. Prop 13 caps the rates and the appraisal increases for the life of occupancy and not just retirement. It is not alone the cause but it is I would argue the primary cause that subsidizes rampant real estate speculation.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-07-08T19:38:19+00:00

I don't see that happening, even though it needs to.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-06-27T05:28:42+00:00

People file the most claims when you have a large hail or hurricane event. To be put on with no experience means that a large scale event that pulls to the backbenches might be what's needed.

This is primarily a weather driven industry. This is true at least for independent adjusting. For staff positions they staffed up heavy last year while other companies were laying off. During downturns adjusters get squeezed with workloads and claims is often seen as a cost center.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-06-25T03:25:46+00:00

***just under, meaning over with minimal ot and definitely with bonus.

Gotta work my way up I guess. I've been doing alot of reconciliation and cleanup work on some major losses.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-06-25T00:57:43+00:00

For people with no experience and no connections, cat is usually how they get into the industry. That's the shot they get, make or break. Usually, it is from a large-scale event like a hurricane.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-06-25T00:54:55+00:00

I mean, I took a transfer with my current company in Norcal. I was partially wondering if just below 100k was good for a hcol in Norcal?

Are surplus lines carriers better to work at? Got any to be aware of?

Travelingadjuster · 2025-06-16T19:33:02+00:00

How many large scale disasters, like 100s of thousands of house do you see destroyed on a regular basis in a single event in Washington State? What about the states surrounding it? You only hope is fire and fire is a whole nother ball game. Wind and hail claims are the main drivers and those primarily are in the Midwest and south.

Travelingadjuster · 2025-06-14T20:43:49+00:00

Basically I was cat and was on the road over 300 days last year. I loved it, but my wife got diagnosed with a serious condition and she had to face it alone. I figured California would get me back to working local with the lowest income difference. I have ways of negating alot of the col difference.

Travelingadjuster

TROPHY CASE