Originally Posted by
Cruz5350
Let's unpack this a bit... It goes junior because everyone has their own wants and desires be it schedules money or something else and nobody knows why. Before you say it's because it's so awful then it would just go unfilled like it does at United which is an entirely different debate. My fleet depending on month/time of the year like the others is highly variable. As of now based off friends in every narrow body fleet minus the 220 there's enough GS's going around if someone wants one. Now maybe not every base but there's no shortage of it at this moment. Regardless relying on premium pay to make ends meet is a fools errand so on one hand you say 20-22k is not that much anymore and then in other posts you wax poetically about how the Alaska rate is plenty and why should anyone cry about not getting what everyone else has etc etc.
You said it wasn’t a seniority cake game, but you literally wrote it goes down the list - presumably in order. So it is, for the next guy who didn’t have a GS before. That is still respecting seniority.
What you are referring to is a self-inflicted wound at Delta. For years they turned their noses at candidates because it was not a pilots market. But after letting something like 2-3k retire during the Covid pandemic, they came out in a huge shortage situation. Now they find themselves having to premium their way out of the mess. It isn’t just Delta.
You keep putting words in my mouth. I did not say 20-22k doesn’t “make ends meet.” Or that AS rate is plenty and why bother have it meet other rates. These assertions are simply not true. Nor did I say to rely on premium to make ends meet.
I hope people enjoy this phase. It won’t last. Delta itself, more than half the seniority list now has been hired since Jan 2014, which means 50%+ of their list doesn’t even have 10 calendar years on property. Let that sink in. This decade was the pilot shortage decade. Covid ruined things in 2020-2021 but they picked right back up.
Enjoy another ~3-5 yrs of this and after that it is holy stagnation at the majors. Those 20s and 30s something hires are going to be ahead of you and everyone else for a loooooooong time to come.