Originally Posted by
Hedley
PP does fluctuate, but another factor is that most of our junior pilots have young kids at home and want to be in control of their schedules. A few more dollars and a stripe isn’t worth missing time at home when they’re young. Upgrading early will mean that you will be at the bottom of the sack for a long time while people who waited to make the move until they had more seniority bid on top of you. To each his own, but I’m sure glad that I postponed advancement until I was more senior. Being home every holiday and taking a month off for summer vacation was worth more than the money.
I don’t disagree with this at all. Many very valid reasons to delay. I was simply replying to the comment about the ability to make as much money in the right seat as the left. This past summer I was flying with new FOs who were on 100% premium and making close to or more than I was. This will go away and likely pretty quickly. There simply will be no ability to close that gap by picking up especially at straight pay. Your post was about the fact that they don’t want it because they can make just as much in the right seat.
I totally agree about early upgrades. These pilots upgrading at 1.5 years will be junior for a very very long time. Reserve will be many years.