Wut, yes, there are pilots here who are content with their lot in life. Just as there are pilots who were happy to spend their careers at VX long before you guys organized. There’s nothing you can do to convince someone they’re not happy so why try? Their situation doesn’t mirror yours. Many on these boards don’t see eye to eye because their perspectives are very different. Commuters have different needs than those that live in base. Reserves have different needs than line holders. It doesn’t make one right and one wrong. It means we don’t all understand each other’s situation. Each pilots specific needs expose strengths and weaknesses in the contract.

The disconnect begins when instead of simply stating their case, helping to inform anyone outside their bubble, pilots attack those with differing viewpoints. Pilots are very self centric people and in general, we see our individual situations as being the only one that matters. However, what purpose does it serve for a commuter to attack someone who lives in base or vice versa? Or for someone who has spent very little time on reserve to talk down to a pilot that’s been stuck on rsv for years? How is it beneficial for a CA that upgraded within a few years of employment to tell a seemingly lifelong FO how it goes? It doesn’t, it only widens the gap and nothing get accomplished.

What needs to be understood is that there has been an overall shift in how this pilot group sees their situation. Even though many of us live in base, we’ve commuted before. Even if we’ve been fortunate to hold lines fairly quickly here, we’ve spent years on reserve at other airlines. Even though some have enjoyed fast upgrades, many have spent the better part of their careers as FO’s. Most of us have our eyes wide open to the current state of the contract and have a better understanding of what the pilot group as a whole needs so the continued pointed attacks do absolutely nothing to further ones cause.

I’m not looking for arguments, I’m looking to end them. That doesn’t mean I’ll see things through your eyes or you’ll see things through mine. It means we have to accept that each of us has a different perspective and instead of attacking one another because our views don’t mesh 100%, we should attempt to explain how the differences affect us and how it can be reconciled.

Nothing will get done if the focus remains on how we’ve ended up in our current situation. You’re a smart person and you know that it goes much deeper than the surface arguments of whoes balls are bigger, whose airplane is better or whose pax are more intelligent, (yes, these are real arguments had by grown men....sad). There are decades of factors that have led us to the present. Simplifying the situation to lay blame on one group is the laziest way to justify ones anger.