Originally Posted by Captain Bligh

There are hundreds of ways to build flight time. Go fly freight or flight instruct. Build time as a first officer at one of hundreds of entry level commuter jobs under a Capacity Purchase Agreement. Beyond ratings, flight time as a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification is a fallacy. Airline HR departments have always massaged flight time requirements lower when they want to hire someone, or a group of pilots that don't "meet the minimums". So be careful not to confuse "time building" with job taking via outsourcing.

I dialog with my appointed Negotiating Committee on a regular basis, as my union and my airline are currently engaged in contract negotiations. With growing frequency and increasing volume my and many of my peer's message is a growing louder and more unified, "SECURE SCOPE AT ALL COSTS". If my airline's ticket office or website sells a ticket with my airline's logo on it, pilots on my airline's seniority list do the flying, unless the market is so thin that less than 50 seats a few times a day are needed to service that market.

If the traditional model of scope is not upheld at major airlines, you will have nothing in this career. Short of a bankruptcy liquidation, established pilots are often well protected in the seniority ranks, too much so for loss of scope to affect them (other than minor erosions of QOL) as much as it has devastated smaller pilot groups like MedEx. Therefore scope erosion is by far more a problem that will plague you and your younger pilot peers than it will current captains at major airlines.

You and many of your peers are the unfortunate victims of a miserable economic outlook and Captain Prater's advice to congress to allow the age 60 rule change. Until that block of pilots begin to retire, there are many qualified pilots on furlough and there are relatively few new hire positions open. So suck it up and stop asking me and my peers to give something up to make room for people that think that they might want to try flying for a living. Don't attempt to take my flying via outsourcing!