The best job I ever had!! Miss all the great pilots I flew with!!
Pros
Made many friends during my years with Chautauqua Airlines. I worked as a Flight Attendant, based in Corpus Christi, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, and Cleveland. Despite the "commute" from Tampa or Orlando, I loved every minute of working with Chautauqua. The training in Indianapolis was excellent! Great instructors, especially Rod. In this job, attitude is everything. Yes, we had some long days, and difficult passengers. But I miss the independence of working alone in the back. I flew on the EMB 135, 140 and 145. The base managers were all very pleasant to me. I did my job, did not complain. Did not miss a work assignment or call in sick in almost 6 years! I was able to see baseball, football, and hockey games in many different cities. If I could go back and work with Chautauqua I would do it in a heartbeat.
Cons
Chautauqua closed bases every year or so. For this reason, I decided to move to Florida, and commute. Makes no sense to keep moving to each base. The travel benefits were a life saver. In order to commute, I had to use every possible airline to get to/from work. Flew out of every airport in Florida, just to get to work. However, Tampa was the best airport for me. Often, I would have no issues. But there were those days, when I was stuck in some airport (usually Atlanta) on my way back home. I was high enough in seniority to pick my trips and days off. This made commuting much easier, at least most of the time.