Originally Posted by
deltajuliet
Nobody is happy about recent developments with the American feed. But I just got here, and most regional pilots are also new enough that they had nothing to do with how the regional system developed and then went bad. Regionals were never, ever meant to be a career. You can thank Osama bin Laden, you can thank Wall Street and people who bought houses they couldn't afford, you can thank legacy pilots for trading scope, and you can thank Congress for extending retirement (although I think that was reasonable). But it's really silly to blame a guy who just got here for a problem decades in the making. I'm sorry for wanting to maximize my earnings potential and putting myself in the best position to reach a major. Should I have gone to ExpressJet? Envoy? AWAC? Sat right seat for a decade, then gotten furloughed and started over somewhere else with a quick upgrade anyway to make up for lost time like half the guys in my class?
You sure have a lot to say for a new guy... There used to be a lot of career regionals that had great pay and benefits with lots of very senior pilots. Management, along with guys(like you) who didn't care about the profession and were willing to work for less helped to keep allowing lower and lower contracts instead of allowing improvements and better career opportunities. Do a little research on how things used to be at Golden West, Air Wisconsin(pay rates on their Bae 146 were well into 6 figures several decades ago) etc.
I've said it before, if JO, Hulas, and other bottom feeder management types couldn't get flight crews to work for them, they would have no other choice than to raise pay and benefits.