Hold up a second.. I probably agree with 99.9% of what you say Margaritaville. But I do have to take issue with any relationship with longevity to opinion on where we want to be as a pilot group in 10 years. I'm only at approaching 3 years, and I can honestly say that some of the worst I've flown with are the real senior folks, telling me that I didn't work there pre-contract and I should be grateful that a contract exists today even though it is terrible (no, the industry should tar and feather anyone who goes to work for a company without a contract who contributes to the dragging down of our industry). One very senior guy even complained like a big baby for 2 hours in a flight while I sat there and listened to him cry. As soon as I said one thing he shut me down with 'you haven't been here long enough to complain'

Seniority at this airline is unlike any other with the multi base strategy. We have 1 in 4 new hires leaving for greener pastures in the first 6 months. May of the sub 3 year guys and gals will be gone in the next 1-2 years. Being in the bottom 40% of this company sucks and will not improve with time, so the normal seniority rules do not apply.

We all came here thinking we were making a good move. Many of us didn't have the X-Jet option to quit after 2 days (once we saw what it was really like on the inside) and go back to our former employer. If i had, I would have.

We are all in this together, and each and every pilot in the group has 1 vote during ratification and senior folks need to respect junior pilots are the ones with the worst pay and qol. Senior guys have the most to loose if this airline shrinks or folds.

Again, I agree with 99.9% of what you say. But my key point of my ramblings above is that longevity is not a requirement to be vocal about our dissatisfaction with this company.

 

My comment wasn't that he doesn't have the right to complain, it's that he has zero historical context to explain to us why allegiant management is the way they are. That's all.

I agree with everything else you said.

 

I can totally see how my comment came off kinda Dunning-Krugerish, and that’s my fault for poor wording. I didn’t mean to come off like I was telling current and more senior employees what they clearly already knew.

I have honestly benefited from Margaritaville’s hard truths as I read this forum for a couple years waiting for a seat. I knew what I was getting into, and for me it was still worth taking the job and slugging it out for a while with an optimistic outlook.

Thanks to these posts, I was prepared for years of reserve in FL getting LL’ed around, and I financially prepared for the time it would take for me to even get to that level of comfort. I knew I would likely not upgrade for a decade+. But it’s where I wanted to live, and it was still escaping a regional.

What I was NOT prepared for, was FL housing prices to rise so much in one year that min guarantee on FO reserve pay was a legitimate concern. A modest 3/2 would cost half my pay on years 2-? as an FO. And while I knew with premium pay I would likely make more, I didn’t want to depend on it, and I didn’t want to worry about whether it would be paid correctly or not. Meanwhile my buddies at every other major made $150-200k as FOs with minimal or no extra effort.

With everyone hiring, and everyone paying more, it largely was a financial decision for me. If the pay was on par with other majors, it would’ve made the other hard parts easier to swallow. But I didn’t want to worry about making enough money while also dealing with the difficult work rules.

I still feel grateful for the experience, as I met a lot of great folks, and it allowed me to be more competitive at other airlines. And G4 got some cheap labor out of me 😆. I hate to sound salty. This job is indeed very nice for some, but it could easily be the best 121 job for most with a very little bit of improvement and culture shift.

 

So very true, but unfortunately we all know it will never come to pass. Pilot hating is in the DNA of this company, and that’s not changing.

 

Well said.