Exactly....

 

I think you guys missed his point. His point was that pilots here say “my regional had better work rules and QOL”, and he was simply rebutting that idea. Yes, one can cherry pick certain specific aspects of our contract and say that “my last regional airline did this or that better”, but in an overall sense, no. ALL of my Regional Airline pilot friends work more hours and more days than I do, and for a lot less money.
With that said, we are not working for a Regional, we are working for the largest airline in the world, one that many consider to be having an “”off” year while profiting a •mere• 3 billion dollars or so.
Our work rules and total compensation need to at least match Delta’s, if not surpass them.

 

It's great they make more than us, I'm happy for them, but AA and Delta are not the same company and have different work group cost structures. I would hope everyone realized this before applying at AA. I had zero desire to work for Delta, I never applied. Guys trying to win the Richard measuring contest will continuously be sorely disappointed no matter where they are, and never be happy.

United once had an industry leading contract. They were already losing money prior to 9/11. I personally have zero desire to work at a place that gets more and more uncompetitive as time goes by and sees stagnation or worse due to labor cost structure. Money isn't everything to me, longevity and stability are worth way more with the ability to plan your life.

Imagine if AA/US/TWA had never stagnated and remained competitive to SWA. How much better would that have been for their careers vs a few guys at AA getting an A fund? At US, they got the PBCG. Yay for having an awesome contract but losing 1/2 of your pilot group over a decade!

As far as comparing to a regional, I was not the one who did that, I responded to someone who was. So maybe you should quote them instead.

It's important that we are at least industry average, which we are above when you look at competitor contracts and pay. YES, THERE WILL BE SOME PLACES THAT HAVE SOME GOOD THINGS IN THEM, but overall our compensation is quite good. And little base hit improvements should and will happen. Comparing us to a regional, at least mine which was still a decent place back then is laughable. Not even worth talking about.

If anything the regional level is like our residency, yet it pays more and you work less, and here in the majors we will outearn most doctors and work faaaaaar less with less stress. Yes some doctors will outearn us but again who cares if you want to make a ton of money and be stressed quit and go to medical school if you think you can hack it. It's almost laughable guys compare themselves to doctors, my CA this trip didn't even go to college yet he's making 300+ a year flying a domestic narrowbody.

 

So you got here three years ago and think you are working under a bankruptcy contract?

Why did you come here? Why didn't you go to Delta if it's so much better? Or United?

When I started at LUS I made $35/hr. THAT was a bankruptcy contract!

What is our starting pay now? $90 or something! UFB.

 

I think you need to set your expectations in life higher. As far as being uncompetitive we have the worst contract amongst the majors and the lowest operating margins. We are poorly managed and our crappy inferior product means we lag our peers in revenue per available mile. People will pay a little bit more to stay at a Marriott over a Holiday Inn. Time for a management overhaul.

 

He’s not talking about just the pilot contract. He’s talking about all of the other unionized workgroups.

 

No he wasn’t. He was responding to Buzzlightyears post lamenting that AA has a terrible pilot contract. Just because our contract now is better than post double bankruptcy US Airways east doesn’t mean we don’t have a garbage contract. Just getting parity with Delta would probably drive 1,000 new pilots.

We have more total aircraft, more group 4 aircraft, yet less total pilots than Delta. We are becoming Mesa Grande.

 

I highly doubt this contract has better work rules than either east or west had post bankruptcy. As long as I’ve been here we have always had some of the worst work rules compared to other legacies.

 

Yeah the Airways contract was so great I made as much or more as an RJ guy in a 50 seater than their Capts made operating an Airbus.

Don't forget the 11 hour three day trips either. Those were phenomenal. Oh and my favorite, no line guarantee except for the last trip of the month so when your legs cancel you lose pay.

 

Warning: thread drift,
but ACD was stupid according to the anti DC crowd. The only drawback to ACD is that now those trips pay 15:45 and go way more senior than before.