Originally Posted by
Aviatrx
Eagle! Try not to bash me to hard, but AMR has got it figured out for Eagle. They are a very stable operation with a smart plan.
Stable meaning no growth. At least they don't have any Captain attrition!
Originally Posted by
Aviatrx
AA was the only company to not file bankruptcy
Recently? Well, Continental hasn't for a long while, not to mention UPS, FedEx, Southwest, jetBlue (granted, new), Spirit, airTran, Midwest Airlines, etc.
Originally Posted by
Aviatrx
and Eagle is the most efficient regional
Well, except for the fact that they have Captains making $125k-$150k, have no forseeable end in sight for their woefully unbalanced seniority list, their flowthrough negotiations going nowhere, and any and all incentive programs discontinued (whether for good or for bad remains to be seen), I guess you could call them efficient. Not to mention schedulers who may or may not know what the actual contract states in terms of duty time and reserve releases.*
Originally Posted by
Aviatrx
providing support for the Worlds largest AAirline with fewer than 300 a/c and 3,000 pilots.
Depends on what you're using to define "largest airline".
Originally Posted by
Aviatrx
The future looks bright right now.
Um, I fail to see the correlation between your evidence and your conclusion.
Originally Posted by
Aviatrx
It seems as though we should be flying newer larger aircraft soon,
It seems as though that is based on speculation, without actual regard to AMR scope clauses.
Originally Posted by
Aviatrx
you might not have to interview for another flying job for the rest of your career,
Tell that to the 2400 pilots who to this day remain furloughed, not to mention the fact that flowthrough doesn't apply to new hires.
Originally Posted by
Aviatrx
you get to pick your base( thus a/c), work rules and pay are par for the industry.
See (*) in my third paragraph, but other than that, you're actually right on this note; that they are above industry par because of their work rules. Then again, they are competing with some really lofty competition, and I wouldn't necessarily stack their work rules against a handful of other regionals, Skywest, RAH, and AWAC coming to mind.
Originally Posted by
Aviatrx
As far as the upgrade time, it sucks. However, if you are low time like everybody that comes here, then you need alot of total and multi time before you meet upgrade mins. Also, the upgrades should be falling down to 4-5yrs TP and 5-6yrs jet by that time.
Well, they're 7 on the turbos and 8 on the jet, and that's with the 400 or so they've managed to hire this year. I wouldn't be surprised if it fell to 4-5/5-6, but honestly, with regionals like Skywest, RAH, and AWAC out there (hell, you even upgrade faster at Piedmont), why would you go to Eagle? While I'll be the first to say that it terrifies me that a person who got hired at 200TT is getting upgraded into the left seat of a vessel carrying 50 lives at just over a year when they get 1500TT, hopefully you don't need 5k-6k hours to gain enough experience to feel comfortable taking command of the situation. Now, while you're right in saying that you'll never have to interview for an aviation job again, let's just pretend that somebody decided to. If you want to advance to a major airline, the likelihood is that that major would like at least some sort of turbine command time,
whether they post it in their minimums or not. It's not that they want you to go through the hassle of getting there or pay your dues or anything like that, it's that they know you're going to be a Captain at their airline someday, and they'd rather not be the airline to find out if you have what it takes to Captain an aircraft.
Anyway, if you couldn't tell, I think RAH is the better choice. Aside from (in my opinion) better work rules and a less hostile management, I think they have a brighter future than Eagle, partly because they're able to keep costs relatively low. While they don't have the "Complete IOE to put in your upgrade bid" upgrade times, they're reasonable taking both a pilot's future ambitions and need for operational experience into account. With a great pilot group and HQ people who aren't actively out to exploit you (mistakes happen), the working environment is a step above. It certainly has its problems, hell, any regional does (and even majors), but I think they're at least a cut above Eagle.
That being said, it's certainly good to look for advise and insight on these boards, make sure that you take your own interests into account when making these decisions.
Now, while Eagle is certainly far from being one of the worst regionals, it doesn't pay a service to our fellow pilots to sugarcoat the truth. What does it matter to me if another pilot picks my airline? If my airline works for me, works for them, and they're a good person, then I'll definitely try and sway them, but if they aren't interested, I don't feel as if this is some sort of popularity contest.
P.S.: Long time reader, first post, I'm sorry if I came off a little irritated, I don't intend to sound that way. I want people to get a realistic view on the world! I do love these forums. Sorry for the long post and any typos.
P.P.S.: BoilerUP, sorry about the name similarities, I chose it before I saw your name! But man oh man, I hope we beat the Buckeyes this weekend.