Originally Posted by
IBPilot
if you guys think pilot pay, especially senior pilot pay, is the root behind Pinnacle's ailments, I want some of the company kool aid you are drinking. Had we not started flying q's for below cost, bought Colgan and Mesaba and the associated training costs etc, got a fancy buiding downtown and given out millions in parachutes and top raises, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Same goes for any airline. Sounds more like a case of entitlement and "get out of MY seat" if you ask me. The same ones that are whining about capping longevity and cutting pay for senior guys now are the ones that were telling their negotiating committes to "shoot for the starts on our contract, if we miss at least we will hit the moon." When and if you guys get to a major and management comes at you with the same proposals you are talking about to "save the company" are you going to think its a good idea then? no because it directly affects you in a negative way. There's not a fast track to everything in life, guys...no matter what the school propaganda tells you. And to think that the senior guys who have been there more than X years are still only there because they can't move on because they don't have a degree, busted 4 checkrides, have 7 dui's etc. as previously mentioned is crap. Some people have established family where they are based, are happy with 18 days off and 80-120k, don't want to uproot family, miss kids soccer games/birthdays/christmas AGAIN and don't associate the size of their genitals with the size of plane they fly.
You make some excellent points. I am a former Colgan Pilot and I've got to tell you, buying us was a complete waste of time and money. All that being said, we can't go back and change that.
I think this discussion is larger than the problems at Pinnacle. You are absolutely correct that Pinnacle wasted a ton of money on buying Colgan, bidding contracts at below cost, moving the office downtown and so on. The thing is, it is not only Pinnacle that is in trouble. In five years Regions Air, Big Sky, Sky Way, Comair, Mesaba and Colgan have disappeared. In addition, Gulfstream, Mesa, American Eagle and now Pinnacle have gone Chapter 11.
There is no doubt that pilot pay is not what put us in the mess we are in at Pinnacle, however, there is also no doubt that they are going to take as much of that pilot pay away as they can.
All that being said, if pay scales were topped out at a certain longevity, theoretically, in addition to limiting the boom of the good times, we may be able to limit the bust of having to go all the way back to year one when our company goes away all together.
By no means am I trying to display an entitlement attitude. I did not go to a 141 school, I was not sold on the thought of one year in the right seat, one year in the left seat and off to the majors. I have put in five years at a regional and would love to move on to another airline. In fact that is what I do all day every day, apply to other companies hoping that I can get out of here.