Originally Posted by
av8nallday
While I agree with the sentiment, let’s look at a few things. Is someone holding you hostage here? Are you unable to apply to legacy carriers? (Devils advocate) I get it I’m in the trenches with you it’s frustrating to see my buddies absolutely killing it meanwhile I’m so far behind them and they hardly work. (Not the case for all of them but some of them)
Let’s also not forget this company doesn’t give two flying F’s about you or I. We are majority owned by an investment group. We serve one purpose and that’s for them to make money not to pay us what the other carriers pay. It’s a hard reality to understand and accept. But some people here have stayed for one reason or another. Does that mean we should be paid like our peers well I guess that’s something you can answer on your own. I know how I feel about it, but BB doesn’t care about my feelings he cares about the bottom line. Which is partly why we are in the position we currently are in. There is only so much cutting you can pull off before it hurts you/us.
I’m not the one running the business so I don’t call the shots but from an outsider looking into management, why are we cutting from the bottom without growing the top? What’s left to cut in an economic downturn? NOTHING! So where do they turn to? The pilot group that’s the one thing left to cut if we really hit hard times. They’ve been so focused on cheap let’s get to the cheapest model possible that they have forgotten to grow the top because ultimately price is king right?! Wrong, very wrong. If they had a semi care about our customer service and not stranding people for multiple days or a week because of their inability to recover we could hypothetically dominate. Three things are true—Customer service, reliability, and frequency will win over being the fastest to the bottom of cheap. Southwest once had this perfected. They are in a strange position right now but that’s also partially because they have the HIGHEST paying NB flying and need to figure out how to cover those costs. Businesses evolve they have to to stay in business. The market has shown the model isn’t a winning formula which is why the big three have basic economy they evolved to the ULCCs dominating years ago. My point is if we don’t evolve soon and rather quickly we could be so far behind the curve it could be detrimental.
I know it’s out of frustration that you say let them go out of business and pay me what I’m worth but you and I both know in this environment that’s probably the last thing you want right now. The rate of a bus pilot has been spoken for my view on this is pay up but careful what you ask for because that could mean the beginning of the end. If you’re cool with that then keep on keeping on with your rhetoric but ultimately temper those expectations we all know who we work for.
Way too much common sense in this post for APC.