That is what management wants you to think.... My friend; the old days of doing a few years at a regional and going to a major have just about completely vanished. Majors are going BK, shrinking, reducing capacity, or in Midwests case... outsourcing mainline flying to regionals. There are no longer enough jobs at majors for the people at regionals to have someplace to go after they "pay their dues."

For the VAST majority of pilots currently flying... whereever they are now will be their career airline for a long long time. If people keep accepting all the BS from management about cutting costs or else, then they will keep pushing the profession even lower. Face it, if the majors have work rules and pay scales that are THAT much better, why don't we? Smaller plane... yes... but they also have proportionally lower aqusition costs, lower operating costs, and importantly, lower fuel burns... the reason we get treated the way we do is because management has the majority convinced that they can NOT be profitable if we are paid properly and have a normal QOL. That is all BS of course, but the majority buy into it, and they continue to hire new kids with shiney jet syndrome who honestly think they will be here.... just a few short years before they get that dream job at the majors... meanwhile management continues to get rich at our expense.

The unions all suk! and exist primarilly to give the union execs a cushy job with some clout... they had one train wreck and the max duty work hours are about to be changed for train engineers.... we've been "trying" to get our duty hours and rest rules changed for decades with no success... so much for our unions and elected reps.

Like the vast majority, I fit in there too. I fly because I enjoy it, but I hate the company and everything else on this side of the hold short line. Once the door is closed, I'm happy again.