Originally Posted by
bigmacdaddy
Hey all, have visited the thread many times and asked all sorts of silly questions. You all know this is the most positive forum out there! Here is another silly question, for those of you in your 30s and 40s who have been at Atlas for around 5 years or more. Are things like the retirement benefits or long haul schedules (lack of sleep) or pay a big enough deal where you would consider moving to another carrier if the opportunity was there? Really I'm wondering, if UPS, United, Delta offered you a job, would you take it no question, or would it be a hard decision and a serious possibility you would say "no thanks"?
This is really one question, I'm being a little wordy. Trying not to upset anybody, just very much curious and serious.
Since I'm an Atlas guy in my 30's, I have asked every single Atlas pilot that looks under 40 in the past year this same question. I would say just over 2/3rd's of the people I spoke with are going to leave when they have the chance. Ive been surprised honestly. Atlas only matches 5% in the 401k (less than my bottom feeder regional I came from). UAL gives* you 16% and DAL 14% of your salary into an account all your own. UAL second year pay is basically the same as Atlas', DAL actually higher, but with a higher guarantee, plus line guarantee. These things matter to the younger pilots who do not have a military pension supplementing their "career" at Atlas. Within the next 5 years, you will see a lot of movement in the bottom 1/2 of the seniority list (remember, 50% of the list IS NOT Capts at Atlas like you see at other companies, more like 35%), and roughly 30 a year in retirements to affect the entire list. You should be able to move up the F/O list but stagnate as you approach the slowly retiring older Captains.