Originally Posted by
404yxl
I would be suspicious of pilots stating otherwise, since their motives may be to get you in a seat behind them, so they can secure the staffing needed behind them so they can upgrade. It's an unfortunate truth that is occurring now with the regionals struggling to staff their airlines and something prospective new hires will need to shift through the noise to see the reality of what they are getting into.
I fly for OO and have a very good buddy at CZ. Nobody at either carrier is concerned that their upgrade/seniority progression will be affected by lack of new hires. Yet.
That could certainly happen at some point in the future, but probably only after the majors start hiring 1500 hour pilots wholesale. But I suspect the majors, knowing that doing so would kill the regionals, would just do a transition program to wind down the regionals and transfer most regional pilots to mainline.
A $22K bonus could mean a lot to somebody who's in debt and doesn't want to torpedo his major airline prospects by filing BK. Or a guy with three kids and a stay-at-home wife.
But for many folks $22K is not worth living in or commuting to a crappy base, or working for a POS company. Especially since it's a discretionary BONUS, and is not guaranteed to be in the pay scale forever. $22K will not pay for your divorce either.
It's no longer 1988...$22K is just beer money. Some people need beer money, some don't.
But there's no need to argue over it, those who actually need the money know who they are.