Originally Posted by
FlyingSlowly
Two points...
1) Just because it's better, doesn't mean that it's good. Aviation needs to be compared with other skilled professions. Our operations occur in a very fast-paced, complex, and dynamic environment. There is direct responsibility for $30-million-dollar equipment. Most importantly, there is also direct responsibility for 76 lives on board. No captain responsible for such things should be earning less than $150k per year. And FOs should be starting at half that salary. Such wages are just common sense when compared to other industries that require similar levels of experience, training, and judgment.
2) Even though I might think that the video in question MAY have come off as a little whiny or entitled, YOU only stand to gain from such negative publicity in the industry. Why bother attacking him? Scarcity of supply in pilots willing to work for a given wage is what drives wages up. If his videos keep people from showing up at a regional airline, the regional airline will have to increase pay and QOL to attract people. When you cut down or insult those who try to tell the less glamorous side of the job, you effectively become a tool for airline management.
Strongly disagree. This response reeks of enitlement and a lack of understanding in business and compensation practices amongst various industries.
1.) Aviation
is comperable to other skilled professions. Go live on a medical intern or resident salary and tell me how you feel. You're flying a smaller plane, doing most of the scut work, getting your ass kicked by awful schedules. Cry me a river -- EVERY skilled career, be it a doctor, lawyer, or airline pilot starts out at the bottom of the compensation ladder with the worst quality of life. Stop acting like aviation is somehow more sacred than the intern prescribing your grandmothers medicine. How many hours has that intern worked, how many orders have they filled, and how many reports do they have to write for their resident? And what's their compensation?
Airline pilots have it the best we've had it in a long time, and I'm making more than my friend whos in his residency. I'm home more (and I commute). I have more free time. You arbitrarily throw out $150K as the base starting for an airline pilot, but the truth is if you got that you'd still complain. You're stuck on the hedonic treadmill, plain and simple.
2.) OR, and hear me out on this, bad word of mouth spreads based on a video. That word of mouth leads to a loss of pilots, which causes CCF to skyrocket, which in turn leads to a loss of flying when AA realizes we can't staff our routes. So, rather than providing better compensation, AA (who's in fiscal turmoil as it is) decides to start pinching pennies, and all the sudden that magical quality of life you're looking for gets
further away. There's always at least two paths every story can go down. Just because you have the lofty idea that the idealistic and altruistic executives in Dallas will realize they need to float cash to PSA to solve the problem doesn't mean that's what they'll do.
The truth is, if an
anyone is at fault for the poor QOL and pay, it's the pilot group. WE elected our respresentation, ratified a contract, and told the airline
in black ink on paper "these are our expectations, and this is how long we expect it for."
Them's the games of being part of a union. If you don't like the situation you're in, I strongly suggest you think more clearly about who you intend to elect next.