Originally Posted by
p3flteng
A bit off the topic "de jour", but an interesting state of the industry from a personal story.
Had dinner with my brother last night who works for a regional and was in town on an overnight. He has decided to quit flying and flip houses full time. He has been doing that off and on for about ten years now, and has done about 12 I think. He is just off Probbie at his job , and he has run the numbers long term and decided he will make more money in the next 10 to 20 years doing that than he will struggleing up through the industry to get to a mainline, and then what make ...100-150k?
Now I know that not every young guy(or girl) coming up has the skill or oppertunity to walk away, but this says volumes about where this profession is at and is headed.
We need to turn this ship around and reverse this trend.
Or, bid reserve, get a good manager, flip houses until you get PO'd at banks and drunks. ... then yellow slip until you get tired of hotels that have no coffee at 05:30, then decide you really want to sling sheetrock mud for a couple of days ... enjoy making more than some Captains (as well as the flexibility to quit either job). Rinse, wash repeat.
Because of the cost of Delta's benefits, most regional Captains will see a five year or more break even at Delta to replace their take home pay. The guys who have been furloughed and have stagnated for a decade have really had it rough.
Having more than one job is a blessing. It would be great to have just one job and focus on flying, but continued displacement bids and pay cuts pretty much force the issue.