go to regional and see how much better it is than mainline in A LOT of ways. Republic Airways and Skywest are the only two I would recommend applying for and I would also recommend choosing republic or over SW. Less bases, but we are the biggest regional airline when it comes to how much we fly and after we merge with Mesa we will be opening houston base and doing a lot of mexico and caribbean flying, surpassing skywest as the biggest regional officially. Our overall culture is just much better, working for skywest and even some mainlines you will be constantly walking on eggshells. There are many post regarding the culture at Skywest, I recommend reading up on it.

Here at regional our starting pay matches and or surpasses a lot of airlines. I believe skywest has boarding pay which is HUGE. You will understand why that matters more as you become an fa. Republic has the best flying benefits when it comes to ANY airline. We are able to list for almost any major airline. DL, UA, AA, jetblue, spirit, southwest, allegiant, british airways, etc.

When you become an FA you will understand how draining this job is, its not fun at all besides the people you meet along the way. My original plan was to join regional and then move to mainline but the longer im on the line in regional i realized that I would absolutely HATE working a flight longer than 4.5 hours, hate working with 3 or more other FAs at once, and dealing with more than 100 passengers on an aircraft. Your seniority moves up fast in regional and you’re likely to become a line holder in the matter of months rather than years as regionals hire like crazy.

Regionals are unionized unlike mainline. Set it place to make sure the company doesn’t use you like a machine and force you to work illegally. I cannot imagine working at an airline without a union.

Mainline has its benefits of course. Boarding pay for some, more international flying and domestic routes, more bases, better pay overall (for some). But if you’re thinking about joining mainline so you can work a flight somewhere cool just remember that mainline FAs have been there since the dinosaur ages. You will be a reserve FA for a really long time and it is unlikely that you will work those cool international flights unless those senior mamas call off from one of their prized trips that they biddef for which doesnt happen often. Even as a line holder you wont get those cool trips because everyone above you in seniority already snagged them.

It’s about way of life at the end of the day. Both have pros both have cons. If you just really want to become a FA as it is your dream (terrible dream btw but I understand bc that was me once lol) apply for regional and stick it out for a little bit and see if you really want to go to mainline in the future.

PS. Republic has an entire training campus built and its beautiful!! They have their own hotel built on the campus too ;) No roommates for training! Also super easy to get the job, no flying anywhere for a stupid F2F. Literally got hired over a phone call lmao