When they pulled my stuff out of airlineapps I declined to even show up for an interview despite numerous phone calls from them. I even went as far to cite the necessity for fiscal responsibility in this career and that working for $24 an hour, less then a 400 hour Saab FO at American Eagle is foolish. The individual then went on to cite how much money I would make someday when I flowed up to NWA. I quickly informed him of my experience with flow throughs at American Eagle, 120 guys flowed up, 600 flowed back. I went on to ask if the contract was written as a flowthrough with a flowback provision or vice versa; of course he had no idea. Now I am at NWA probably a decade before I would've ever seen that flowthrough and up until October I was asking myself where is the money? It would've been something like 9 year 757 pay before breakig 90 an hour. Fortunately an aquistion by DAL pulled me out of the hell B-Scale; I was betting on a merger when I took the job.
To answer your original question, no I won't take the flowback position. First of all I commute from the left coast and any less of a commuter policy or time off would likely send my marriage into a death spiral. If or when I get the boot, I will likely go acrue more time towards a federal/military retirement. With the mere fact that people are lined up to take these jobs, with greater than 1,500 hours TT and an ATP to boot, I have to ask my fellow pilots this? What incentive exists for an employer to pay more or move those airframes to mainline? If I were in management and could muster up well educated, more than qualified, formerly experienced 121 guys with vastly more experience than I could find even 15 years ago, why would I change a thing when I have thousands of applications on file? At some point I would even convince myself that pilots are happily taking the jobs, especially if they have great attitudes at 24 an hour.
My insult is not targeted at the professionals flying these planes, rather the managements that play us on eachother. My only gripe is with those that can't read the writing on the wall because no one has explained it to them. In fact I would fly side-by-side with any of the Compass guys, just not at Compass. My point of frustration is with promises that are as solid as the paper they are written on. The flowthrough at Eagle never worked yet pilots spent over a decade waiting to be or hoping to be stapled to the bottom of American, at least hoping for a flow through number that would someday guarantee them a long term financial prosperity; for most it will never happen as that agreement is no longer in place. I made lots of friends with those former TWA types, but they and I agreed that the flowthrough was written first and foremost as a flowback agreement with a flowthrough provision, basically a punishment to Eagle for parking mainline lift and ordering 300 jets on Eagle's certificate. Additionally, everyone one of them rode my tail feathers to punch out of Eagle and get that left seat time somewhere else, even at the fractionals. Sadly, I have friends who are '99 hires recently displaced off a Saab back again to jet FO; this is the third cycle for some of them.
Unions. Why in the heck NWA MEC ever granted permission for NWA to operate Compass as basically a C-scale is beyond me. The 1,500 hour and ATP requirement was put inplace to create staffing issues in a market when airlines couldn't find anyone unemployed with more than 400 hours. APA once represented Eagle pilots but threw them to the street. Now days AMR plays Eagle against APA every chance they can get. Some have moved to push Compass to another MEC, I disagree. Representing Compass gives the mainline pilots some leverage in trying to get your tails over to this side of the fence. People are slowly coming around, realizing that the ways of old are not the best.
Again, I have no problem with you. I am just speaking from personal experience and wish the best to my fellow bird men (and women). Just wish you and those new planes weren't on B Concourse.
Lastly, how many guys flowed back last time?