Originally Posted by highfarfast

I get the feeling that those that keep insisting guys are making poor decisions by staying at a regional haven't worked in this industry long enough to understand what seniority can mean to someone that's been at an airline for 15+ years.

I never ask the lifers I fly with why they chose to stay because I know that there must be some that the subject might be a bit sore. That said, it does come up from time to time.

The first lifer I flew with (on IOE) told me he was a cancer survivor and had just gotten back from extended leave fighting his cancer. Before the cancer, he had planned on flowing to AA but his spot came and went while he was away. Said he could select to go now but instead wanted to focus more on spending time with his family and taking care of his health which meant not commuting to wherever the new job put him and working a junior schedule.

One guy had invented a gadget, had patented it and was making more money selling it that he was flying.

One other lifer I flew with went off on an unsolicited rant about how ridiculous it would be for him to give up years of seniority and take a pay cut to go work for AA. He actually came off as quite a bit bitter and I wouldn't be surprised if, at least with him, there was more to the story. But he's the only one.

That was three. The rest:

All the rest have appeared so content with their decision that they really don't seem to really think about it. They do seem to enjoy their 5 or 6 weeks of vacation, or whatever it is they get because they like to talk about what they've been up to and they have WAY more time off than I do. They don't have enough years in them to ever see that at AA. I really think it's just a QOL thing. They also really like to talk about what I'm doing and what my career plans are and what it's like for recent hires today... no bitterness, just interested and happy things are different today than when they were coming up the pike.

All these guys had flow as an option so it's not a hustle/no degree/dui/gender/race/overqual/etc issue. They were also good pilots (even the one bitter one). They just have different priorities than making the max buck.

So if you're focused on the idea that everything anyone does is about the money and they just don't know how to do math or they have no idea how to get another job, I think you're wrong.