Originally Posted by brakechatter

Delta's product suffers because of outsourcing, period. It is rare that I don't see a delta pilot helping our customer's in various forms when I am at work. We keep engaged, we engage our customers. I do not see that on connects carriers at all--even with the giant strides I have seen in the QOL of the regional pilot. I never saw any sort of decent pay, trip rig, positive space commuting, reasonable duty time days when I was there-and I am glad it has improved.

Make no mistake, ALL of that improvement has come at the expense of mainline carriers. SWA and other productive low paid carriers came in and started hitting yields with the low hanging fruit of the trunk carriers. To battle back, the regional carriers boomed with the advantage of the RJ. Legacy pilots ended up taking the hits via jobs, pay, QOL, pensions, and just about everything else. I didn't see many regional pilots worried a whole heck of a lot about finding jobs for them. Now, the majors have ironed out the issues, and the tide seems to be turning. Regional margins are coming under fire, because the airplanes can't support the inflated compensation structure as predicted. The very boom some of you have enjoyed has now come full circle. It's a cruel business always has been, always will be. Military guys want their buddies to get jobs, regional pilots want to get their buddies on. Everyone has their reason why they deserve the job. Me? Just give me a turboprop pilot-great lakes, piedmont, king air corporate, p-3. Humble, hungry, and good sticks they are. Make your own path, it will be much more satisfying in the end, at least it was for me. Or complain the rest of your life. Your choice.