Originally Posted by
hummingbear
Titles haven’t been the driving motivator for a long time, if ever. Money? I hate to say it, but yes, it most definitely is. Why have we never seen a WBCA vacancy? (And yet for the most part, everyone sitting WBCA would have a better QOL as WBFO- many to a substantial degree.) The problem w/ NBCA is not that $$ doesn’t motivate, it’s that the amount of money being offered isn’t sufficient to motivate for this position.
Think of it this way, if NBCA paid $1M/year, it would be our most senior fleet by a lot. (WB pilots in both seats would be bidding in.) If $1, no one would take the job. Somewhere in between, there’s a number that would get enough pilots to bid into NBCA that we wouldn’t need to beg every FO to consider it on their first year anniversary. The fact that we are doing that is evidence that the amount being offered is too low for the insular market of UAL pilots. This is very simple S/D economics.
I agree that money would motivate, but motivating the senior without alienating the junior would be a trick. If NBCA paid closer to WBCA and significantly widened the gap between NBCA and WBFO the left seat would go much more senior. It would be worth the work at that point and the vacancies would probably fill. Using the new Delta rates as an example, if WBCA paid $417, NBCA paid $390-400, yet WBFO still paid $285 you’d see lots of senior people bid captain. We’ll never see a contract get ratified where captains get disproportionate raises over FO’s though. Kirby either needs to figure something out to encourage upgrades or postpone the aircraft deliveries and slow the expansion to a more manageable level.