Originally Posted by
AboveAndBeyond
Might want to ask all of the legacy airline pilots about how "brick house" the pay rates were over the last 15 years. Some have had hourly pay rate cuts of 50%.
Yes, taking the bonuses and putting them into hourly rates is a great thing, but for a first year pilot, the pay will be about the same. It really starts paying off huge dividends once you upgrade. The Captain pay at Endeavor is substantially more than PSA right now. PSA will have to do something to increase captain pay within the next several months.
It is very difficult to compare the lost decade to today and going forward. In that aspect, regionals had 0 bonuses and had to solely rely on the pay rates. So having a hard pay rate is way better.
Legacies cut some pay rates due to going through bankruptcies etc. Even with the pay cuts they still made livable wages (it sucked of course). Regionals didn't.
Landscape has changed quite a lot since then and good luck touching the pay rates these days... Even bonuses for that matter. But... bonuses can be taken away a whole lot easier then pay rates.