Originally Posted by
ProverseYaw
They may move on, but not to Delta. And how will a new hire be competitive with a few hundred hours of right seat rj time when there are hundreds of pilots with military time, thousands of tpic hours, check airman, internal recs, etc...
My point is new hires need to be realistic. Endeavor is not the fast track to the majors that many on here would like you to believe it is. The "industry leading" pay is a short term bonus to prolong the inevitable. 9E was a sinking ship in 2014 and the retention bonus was introduced quickly to prevent excessive cancellations for delta's summer schedule. It will be just as quickly removed in 2018 (maybe earlier) as Delta takes the regional flying back in-house on the mainline certificate with C Series deliveries in 2017. It is the end of days for the regionals. The only ones who try to tell you things are perfect, and its all too good to be true, are the regional lifers on this forum who are hoping to run out the clock until they can retire in a few years. New hires at endeavor can expect many years as an fo at the bottom of the industry pay scale and a 50-50 shot at making it to delta with the "guaranteed" interview after 2 years as a captain.
If it's the end of the regionals, then how are "lifers" going to run out the clock, and how are FOs going to stay at the bottom of the barrel. You are right, Delta is a difficult place to be hired, but they all are. Majors taking more flying in house is a GOOD thing. That coupled with mandatory retirements means it can only get easier to be hired, never mind how much left seat time you have. This is all assuming that every captain on the seniority list fails the SSP and stays a captain for the rest of their career at 9E, which is one of the more idiotic things I've heard. You also overestimate how many qualified military pilots there really are. Believe it or not, the military is facing a shortage as well...