Originally Posted by
Naven
If you are at UPS for stability there is almost no other place to be unless you are in the bottom 600. The problem with a career at UPS has to do with negative growth for the foreseeable future and little retirements for the the next 20 years. Most mature airlines have about 5% of their pilots retire per year. When retirements start again in a couple of years UPS retirements will be around 1-3 % per year. Couple that with the shrinkage of flying equals stagnation. Don't get me wrong, compared to almost anywhere else you could be UPS is at or near the top, but most guys hired in the past 10 years are looking at a 20 years until upgrade which isn't that great because the average age of new hires in the past few years has been around 40.
Naven, Great points. It's obvious to me that for some reason I am really irritating some people about what I am saying about UPS. I don't know why, but people just get mad when you criticize their company. I really like the people here, I just don't like UPS and I think that this job is a serious dead-end for anybody who was recently hired here, like me. The reasons that you stated here are even more that I haven't even thought of, but yes, I cannot honestly imagine that I will ever make captain here until I am in my late 50s.
There are no retirements, we are shrinking the airline, they are probably hiring more and more managers, the company is getting much more efficient scheduling, etc.
This place is a serious dead end, and I think many of the recent hires like me will eventually start to see it as the months and years go on. Benefits will keep getting cut, the contract will keep getting violated, and UPS will begin to fall down to where it used to be as far as pilot jobs are concerned.
Take away the hefty hourly rate, and UPS is a terrible, terrible job. Add in the stinking RDG and commuting to Alaska for the junior guys, and this place is the pits!!!
What will change the inevitable? Nothing. We are trapped here and this place is a dead end! I wish I could have a do-over and take the SWA job or even stay at my other airline.
By the way, I just heard that the SWA pilots are about to get hundreds (Frontier and Lynx pilots) stapled to their list, so I would be seriously senior there instead of furlough fodder here. Crap! Oh well.