This entire industry is based on the fact that somebody who got hired somewhere 6 years ago has more "power" than somebody hired 5 years ago and no matter how wrong or immoral, that 6 year person is going to screw every person hired after them as much as it takes to hang on to what little they have left...things THEY let slip away. United pilots' failure to keep mainline flying in the hands of mainline pilots has helped to screw every younger pilot trying to move up in the industry. Now they realize they screwed everybody, including themselves, but that doesn't matter anymore because it happened in the magical, mystical past where fairies and pixie dust are from.

Right now it's the present, and in the present, mainline guys are far superior to regional guys and have every right to continue screwing the entire industry up. After all, they have been here a couple of years longer and are very important people. The flying is their flying (that they oh so carelessly let slip away because it was below them and not fit for a mainline pilot) and they have every right to do it. It doesn't matter that they are doing it for half the pay, that's just the way the industry is (because they allowed it to become that way). Any young regional pilots should just be happy they're allowed to fly those shiny 70-seat jets at all (even though they'd much rather fly something smaller for less pay with the actual opportunity to move up to decent pay in the future). You see, regional pilots, you are all whining too much and need to respect your elders and blame yourselves more often (and make sure you do everything you can to ignore the fact that you are stuck where you are, with no movement and the bleakest outlook possible, because your elders are the ones that allowed this industry to get where it is).

For the record, I do not have anything against mainline guys at all. I'd love to be one. It's just this "holier than thou" attitude that the ones justifying their time at GJ have that is ridiculous. I fly with numerous furloughed mainline pilots at my current company and have great respect for all of them but none of them pretend that because their careers progressed a little bit farther than mine has, that they are suddently entitled to free passes on being d-bags and screwing over fellow pilots.

And to those people that think that because the GJ/TSA thing "happened in the past" and so it's no longer bad to go there. Remember, as soon as something happens, it's in the past. It might be 5 seconds, it might be 5 years, but that doesn't mean people aren't still being screwed by the way things happened and the continuation of those actions. I think the failure of mainline scope is a prime example of that. Everything done in this industry has reprocussions. The only reason the young guys are in the position they are in is because of everything that happened before they got here. Considering the industry is in the worst shape it's ever been in, I don't think that's a badge of honor I'd want to be wearing if I'm a senior guy. Can we fix it? I don't know, but with the way I've seen ALPA work so far, I have very little hope. If the airlines can assess $50 bag fees and all kinds of other fees, maybe a $3 per ticket fee for pilot compensation would be reasonable. Most people tip a cab driver around that much for a 20 minute ride. Bah, I'm getting off topic, I'm done.