Originally Posted by
outaluckagain
You make quite a comparison here between widebody captains and what most are earning. I doubt anyone on this thread is wining about the pay at the majors, but rather the weak pay at regional levels.
Regradless of what you refer to as getting paid to sit or sleep in a hotel room, the pay is too low. How can wages well below what it takes to pay a modest mortgage and save for retirement be considered acceptable by any means.
Pilots commonly make the mistake of assuming that years of low pay after accummalating massive debt will be "made up for" later. Later may never come!! You could easily never get hired by a major or even get furloughed when you do finally get hired. Just look at those UA guys who had been on furlough for the better part of a decade.
I really think pilots shoud stop looking at themselves as "future widebody captains", and take a good hard look at their current situation and try to make improvements from there.
Look, I'm trying to say that a regional pilot has the same job and responsibility as a major, so why work for such low wages?
Exactly, the reality is that this is no longer a stepping stone for many since that ship has sailed long ago, which is part of the problem since they don't want to start over so they vote however they can to keep the company in business. Even if it is just scare tactics. We aren't flying B1900's anymore, we are flying planes with capacity close to the DC-9/B717 on mainline routes (JFK-ORD) for example. The whole "regional" name is a misconception in itself. I've flown in 4 time zones covering a distance over 4,000 NM at my "regional". If we are going to fly mainline routes then we should get mainline pay, and fight tooth and nail to get it!! In the end Major airlines will no longer see it economically viable to outsource and will take the flying back under contracts that are livable.