I am coming up on my 1 yr. anniversary on the Saab in DFW. I told myself when I started that I would give it a year to figure out whether I liked it or not and now, here I am.

Eagle has a lot of things going for it. Being based where I want to live in is number one. The pay is not the best, but it's certainly not the worst. Our work rules are better than some worse than others (I'd like to see duty/trip rigs though ). Nothing is certain in this business, but AMR/Eagle seems pretty stable. (Then again so did United, Delta, et al a few years back).

But on the flip side of the coin, as you remarked, upgrades seem to be just a myth. We actually had a few "new" upgrades in the last vacancy with the most junior having a hire date of 4/99. 7 years. The problem is that you can't just say, "Eagle has a seven year upgrade time". That's what it is right at this very moment, but in two years things could be the same or entirely different (better or worse). It's maddening. I've flown with several captains who upgraded after two years, but that was then and this is now.

What's causing all of this stagnation? Several factors; I'll name just a few, but I'm sure that there are more experienced Eagle guys who could expound upon this.

1. Flowbacks. ALPA (Eagle Pilots) signed a deal with the APA (American Airlines Pilots) to create a flow-though deal. You'll see it referred to as Letter 3 because it was an amendment to our contract. At the time I'm sure that it seemed like a good idea, but this was prior to the crash of the airline industry. In a nutshell, the agreement was that for every two new pilot jobs at AA, one of the spots would be filled by an Eagle CJ captain who met certain requirements. In return, Eagle would provide furlough protection to AA pilots by offering them a captain seat at Eagle while they waited to be recalled. Ha! That could never happen!

Well, it did and now we have around 400 AA pilots as captains. There's a lot of bitterness towards them among some pilots here, but I won't get into that other than to say that it creates a lot of negativity. The main problem with flowbacks (as I see it) is that they aren't going anywhere, nor do they want/need to. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but many (if not all) of them are at the top of the pay scale here, which may be a pay cut to them, but it's a lot better than being on the street or having to resign your AA seniority number.

2. Aircraft deliveries. American Eagle isn't getting any new airplanes.

3. For the most part, the majors aren't hiring. We've had a few, guys get hired by Southwest that I know of, but not the numbers needed in order to free up captain spots and see a huge turnaround.

4. Lifers. A lot of our captains are, how should we say, in their silver years. They don't want to start over as an FO on reserve. I can't blame them. Just under 200 will be forced to retire because of the age 60 rule over the next five years.

5. American Connection. The bastard cousin/whipsaw of Eagle. Airlines flying for AC include Trans-states, Chatinkwa, Regions Air... These airlines have much more junior workforces and therefore have lower labor costs. We get a "pep talk" letter from our CEO now and again about how we need to find new ways of cutting costs because, We wouldn't want to lose our status as AA's preferred feeder now would we?

So, if we can kick start the aviation industry, recall the flowbacks, get our current captains to move on, keep the feed, and expand our routes/fleet, we should be in pretty good shape. It could happen. But there's no way to guarantee it.

Personally, I'm at a turning point and I don't know which way to go. I'm about to get off probation and get a raise. I have pretty decent QOL now, but the upgrade thing nags me on a daily basis. I'd like to start paying off my loans and maybe, gasp, buy a house. Can I do that if I continue to make a salary in the mid 30's for the next 6 years (or more)? If I go somewhere else, coughSkyWestcough, will my situation improve or worsen? I don’t know.

Now, to bring it back to the positive, let me say that I really do enjoy my job. I love the flying, the travel benefits, the people I work with, and the amount of days off that I get. The training and experience that I’ve gotten here has been excellent.

I would say that if you aren’t necessarily only concerned with upgrade, that Eagle is a good place to come, even if it’s only for a while. That being said, if you have another option that you think that you would like better and you think that you have a chance of getting, then I would go for that… As they say, seniority is everything and I’m finding that seniority is becoming a large part of my decision of whether or not to stay. Larger than I thought it would a year ago.

Good luck!