Originally Posted by
moon
I think the life cycle of an envoy employee goes something like this. New hire eager to fly and give the company the benefit of the doubt because hope exists. A fee years in and a few years of reserve abuse turns into a seething hatred for this company because your pay and QOL is so so far behind your peers who haven't sat reserve except for maybe a few months. A few years go and seniority builds and you are off reserve, still very far behind peers but hey at least it isn't reserve so you get some indifference. Then you flow and AA has to help rid you of the Envoy beating mentality and you slowly begin to forget, but that one time you got junior manned into a 30 hour overnight in ALO and missed your daughters birthday will never leave you.
How much of this is just the shiny being rubbed off of people as they learn what this industry is actually like? No one cares that you originally had Christmas off and had plans, or about your kid’s birthday. I have my own sob stories from my current gig. I’m already used to no one giving a crap about me. You embrace it, or it eats you alive.
The people at the “better” places are complaining about many of the same things. Inefficient schedules due to hub and spoke, antagonistic management who doesn’t want to pay pilots or improve anything, low pay. A healthier regional has reserves, but that means someone has to be on reserve. There’s a ton of complaining when there aren’t reserves, too.
The only solution seems to be to not fly for a regional. Catch-22 when you want to be an airline pilot. Then you can go on to be one of those mainline dudes who sounds like the Peanuts teacher as they ***** and moan to their jumpseater (me) for an entire transcon commute, who makes a small percentage of what they do in far worse conditions.
I’m not saying the pay inequality amongst AA WOs is excusable. It isn’t. That’s some BS, but apparently few believe it won’t be addressed in time... even here.
The cadets everyone lambasts, who took financial assistance, may not be able to afford to break their contracts. They may be trapped. I didn’t have $50 when I graduated from college, much less $5k to pay back so I could go elsewhere. And these are impressionable kids who “don’t want to get up at 4am” (actual quote from my interview group, that sweet summer child) and believe recruiters.
In fact, my interview with Envoy, where the recruiters basically sneered at us, was by far the most genuine experience I’ve had. THAT I believe...