Whats it like?
Good:
Great bunch of guys/girls to work with.
Nelson is a great town and yes the lads have a ball.
J41 is a nice plane.
Command will come relativly quickly, but probably only on the 31/32 if in Nelson, the 41 fleet has now been stocked with crustys that will never leave, ie the Air Nelson senario, you would get a 41 command if you moved to CH.
Rosters are not to bad as a co-pilot, captains however get worked reasonably hard.
Captains pay is comparable to other airlines.
Bad:
Co-pilot pay is the lowest in the country for the number of seats in the aircraft, ie basic pay for 19 seat J31/J32 = 28K, basic pay for Eagle 1900 approx = 32K (I stand to be corrected on that).
Basic pay for J41 = 32K compared to S340 = 37K (there is also no rise in J31/32 co-pilot pay untill you get your command).
Least amount of holidays compared to all other airlines in the country. (3 weeks compared to 6).
J31/32 is a pile of crap.
Managment that could not give an obese rats undercarridge about its staff.
Crap staff travel.
Rosters are sometimes issued only 5 days before the end of the current roster (ie on tuesday you dont know what you are doing on monday).
Overnights are spent at places that are not as good as other crews. (may seem like a small thing but it does p1ss you off a bit when you see other crews going off to a nice hotel for a paid meal in the resturant and you go to a motel and then trudge off down the road to get some fish and chips only to find its closed, or get no sleep because there is a party going on next door).
Allowances are less than any other link airline.
Captains are now BONDED AND STEP payed when they get their command, (bond has been up to 10K in some cases). Pretty sure no other airline bonds for command.
You will not make up your salary on the 31 with overnight allowances (its only 50 bucks and you have to buy dinner and brekie out of that).
No seniority list, ie those who grease, receive.
Nobody really seems to care for the place and morale is fairly low which can make the place a bit depressing at times.
In all, to sum up if you were in a good GA job than stay there untill you get the call from a link airline. If you are out of work or in a crap GA job and get the call from Origin, take it but dont expect it to be much better than GA.
Hope that answers a few questions.