I have to agree with the sentiment from Swedepilut and David Puddy. Except for a few areas, this job has not had much appreciable change during my time here. Granted I have only been here a couple years. I have not seen any drastic change in day to day life on the road. The things that suck, still suck. In addition, I haven’t changed the way I work. I fully utilize my CBA rights to make sure I am fed and rested, and I work at a professional pace and do only my job. What has changed is how the job (compensation) compares to others in the industry. That, I believe, is the reason for discontent amongst the pilot group at this point. Not that the job has changed, but that we have fallen further and further behind our peers in compensation for a job that arguably harder than 121.

While I won’t encourage people to stay or leave, I believe in providing the facts of the job and letting people make an educated decision. The pilots we are hiring now have probably the greatest amount of information available to them regarding the entire industry than ever before. While I’ve met some new hires who didn’t look any farther than the rosy picture some portray and didn’t do their research, that falls in their lap. Not everything about this job is amazing, but there’s no perfect job. However, I put very little stock in those pilots who make matter of fact claims, whether on an anonymous message board or in the cockpit, that new hires should leave immediately or people shouldn’t come here. Very rarely do these people take time to learn about why someone wants to come or stay here. In addition, they usually have some weak argument about why they stay and then spend the entire tour complaining about how they are “stuck” here.

I don’t mean to imply that nobody has a valid reason for not making the jump. Those reasons are often times the same reasons that new hires want to come or stay here. However, if you want to encourage someone to come or not to come here, how about providing the reality and facts of the job rather than a statement that everyone should take your word for it because you have been here for X number of years. Lay it out there and let people decide for themselves.