Originally Posted by
Boomer
Funny you should ask.
I was just looking at a textbook... Intro To Economics.
It goes through a few definitions (cost vs value vs worth, etc) and by page 3 they start with the first lesson: What is worth more, a diamond or a glass of water?
Then they go into the discussion of a guy in the desert and how he would gladly trade diamonds for a glass of water. I guess anyone in the world can relate to diamonds, water, deserts, and thirst.
Reading on to page 5, they go into the second lesson: How much is a 747 Captain worth? (I swear I'm not making this up!)
This discussion goes along the lines of all the training, experience, the lifetime of preparation, a clean record, incredible responsibility, long hours away from home, and so on. So is a 747 pilot worth 300,000 a year? Yes, they reason, as long as there are only so many available.
However, they go on to point out that if there is a surplus of qualified persons to fly 747s, then the "value" of a 747 Captain drops rapidly. Thus ends the second lesson in the economics textbook.
Honest to God... the first two examples in an economics textbook are a rich man dying in the desert and a bunch of 747 pilots that think they're worth more than the market will support.
I didn't read any more after that.
Pilot Pay has always been a Supply vs. Demand issue. Here's an idea I've been playing with for many years, decouple our pay from the company. No pay by the company, at all.
As soon as we get above 10,000', we make this PA. "Hi Folks, Wecome aboard Pay Me Airlines. We will be up front, doing all we can to get you to ATL as smoothly and safely as possible. As soon as we find some smooth air, Buffy and Muffy and Tiffany will be coming trough the cabin collecting our Landing Fees. As soon we have collected an adequate amount, say, $5.00 per person, we will request to be released from this holding pattern and we will get you into ATL ON TIME. Remember our motto, You want a safe, smooth flight? PAY ME!"
Then we go hold somewhere until the pot hits at least $500, (for a 1hr. flight, to be divided between 2 pilots, $300 for me, $200 for Junior) then we land, safely, smoothly.
A long time ago an American Airlines Capt. wrote a paper called, "What if we all worked for free." I still have a copy of it, it's several pages so I won't type the entire thing here, but the bottom line was, he used AA's own numbers, ASM's, CSM's vs. RPM's, and did the math, to show that even if AA paid their pilots ZERO, the actualy price of a ticket would come down about...$5.00. So when the Company starts with the, "We can't afford to give you a raise, our ticket prices would go up too much..." well, we all know that's a bunch of crap.
And in this month's ALPA magazine there is a graphic that shows where every cent of a Ticket Price goes, Pilots are about 3.2% of the total cost of the ticket. The sample Ticket they used in the example was $339.64. Of that the Pilot Costs were $10.87. Airport fees and taxes were all much higher than pilot costs, 9.9%! The bottom line is, Pilot Costs are a tiny fraction of the ticket price, only 3.2%.
As I still tell people when they ask about our pay, you are not paying me for the smooth flight, the flight is free, you are paying me for the safe landing. Like they guy in the desert willing to pay diamonds for a glass of water, how much is a safe landing worth? Well then, Pay ME!