Originally Posted by cencal83406

And yet 2007 XJ hires had jobs at mainline waiting for them. Heck, more senior than that.

108 people. It's one thing to have not allowed the unwashed masses, ie Pinnacle pilots (XJ pilots hate us, because we are stupid?) participate in this flow as a result of the purchase... but to short change every new hire at XJ prior to July 1 2010 (the day that music died) out of their earned slot is not fathomable. If you earned it, so did any XJ new hire. I didn't, because I went to the idiot airline.

As an aside, my buddies tell me that from day 1 in class, they were told how bad everyone at Pinnacle was... And yet, in the other house, we never even talked about any other regional carrier in the course of training.

Back to topic: why is it such a foreign concept that new hires at regionals and FOs in general need to be compensated fairly? I ran the numbers once, but you dismiss it as socialism. I guess I'll just go with the boilerplate agree to disagree, because I don't see it that way. Even DALPA gets a fixed dollar amount from DAL, that the folks in charge of the union split up into various sections of the contract. As far as responsibility in the cockpit, CRM would say that both crewmembers are equally responsible for the outcome. Of course one person has to make the final decision, and the FO shouldn't question the decision unless he or she feels they are about to die or violate a reg or SOP. Dismissing the right seat responsibility strikes me as you assuming all your FOs are idiots who warm the seat next to you. I'm sure that you've flown with CAs at the regional level you scratch your head at...

Let's revisit this:
top scale FO vs 4 year CA (none of those at Endeavor anyway):: $39 FO, $69 CA (56.5%)

top scale FO vs top scale CA $39 FO, $87 CA (44.8%)

Both numbers are too low, but are 7 year FOs the liability to CAs that wet-commercials off the street are? Hardly....

If they truly want to encourage up-and-out, FO scale should be increased. If the the top scale FO became 12 years, at current top vs 4 %, that's $49.16....

Why did so many people, at 2011 JCBA rates, and pre-bankruptcy XJ rates, want to stay?

The regional model does not work with folks staying... Bottom line, they HAVE to move on. How do you make it happen?

I don't have the answers, but treating the guys stuck waiting to upgrade better might be a start. Encourage people to move on. Re-think pay scales at the regional level without knee-jerk reactions of "it's different, so it's socialist". Lastly, regional FOs are just as capable as the CAs, if not more. If you've been paying attention, many current 7+ year FOs WERE CAs....