Polishpilot; You’re brainstorming to resolve this dilemma and that’s good. That is exactly what we all should be doing instead of giving into resignation, which seems to be in full force on this site most of the time. I thought of a similar idea years ago. 5 bucks per seat adds up to a lot of money and who cares about 5 bucks I thought? Turns out the average Joe Public does and he’ll spend 3 hours sifting through Airlines on Orbitz, Priceline, ect… to save that five bucks. The only way to increase the cost of a ticket (and increase our pay and self respect) that I can see is for regulation as you proposed or for ALPA to get off their *ss and work for their (our) money. I work hard for my peanuts and they should work hard to get a bite of mine. If ALPA were to take on a full attack against all airlines backed by all airline pilots at one time we may be able to change something. What is ALPA’s reason for existence at this point? By asking that I don’t mean get rid of ALPA. I mean; isn’t their entire existence to keep us out of the current situation we are in? I don’t know what to do about that. If ALPA was any other service provider of mine and they didn’t hold up to their services I would discontinue the service. But on the other hand we need a union. Where is our representation?
My rant is over for now.
Keep brainstorming!!!