Originally Posted by
RyanP
Hah, no kidding.
I couldn't get hired elsewhere off the street even as a check airman. *At a Legacy carrier that I actually wanted to work for that is*. Now currently working at AA anyway, whether they wanted to hire me or not, haha, due to flow, and I am based at home. Paid Eagle dues. Flow worked contrary to garbage posted on the internet. Took a while but I have my seniority number now at the worlds largest airline before the biggest pilot retirement wave in history. Not a terrible place to be IMO. Envoy sucks, no denying it. All regionals suck. At least Envoy people have a backup plan B to get to a Legacy carrier. That does work.
PS, when I got hired at Eagle a little over a decade ago there was NO flow agreement for us, so counting that time to flow seems kind of stupid anyway, we just had flow backs from AA working at Eagle from a prior agreement that didn't apply to us and no promise of anything except $23/hr and a kick in the nuts regularly. Until what, something like 2012 when they gave us that deal? A Lot of BS happened in between back then and now, very few people hired for several years, there was a bankruptcy, consolidation, and all kinds of mess. That flow time will drop rapidly again. Just like the big drop from 2004-2007 with nobody hired. We went from 16 yrs on property to 11 yrs to flow overnight when it hit that gap. Another BIG drop in time will happen again when it hits the next hiring gaps. That's how it drops to 6-8 yrs. Again, despite BS internet beliefs. Seniority list says it all. Look at the hire dates/numbers. Do the math. Not that hard.
I guess I could have gotten hired at a turdbox like Allegiant years ago too since they called me incessantly from an app I put in back in like 2007 but why would I want to do that? Then I'd never get to AA.. well maybe I would one day in like 2034 after 12000 more flows/military pilots are hired and The pool is completely dried up. Then I could sit at the bottom of the stagnant seniority list for a couple years until retirement.
I remember being really excited when the original flow award dropped. Even though it only included around 1200 pilots at the time it guaranteed movement off the top. At other large regionals like Republic and SKYW or even Endeavor if you don't get hired you start to stagnate on the CA list with other guys in similar situations. Constant movement at the top of the list benefits everyone and opens up more jobs in either the training center or the LCA ranks as guys naturally leave for flow or other opportunities.
Even at bare minimum flow rates for guys hired after 2014 flushing out the protected pilots even a few months faster will be good for everyone on the list and I believe we'll see guys hired from 2015-2017 consistently hit flow times in less than 6 years. If flow times start to trend the wrong direction I bet some negotiating capital could be used to make adjustments just like the 824 and protected pilot agreements were improved over time through grievance settlements and contract negotiations.
As things are currently set up the flow through works well for pilots who want to wait for flow and for pilots who want to get career advancement elsewhere while still making consistent seniority gains while they wait at Envoy