Lemme guess….DFW-ATL

 

Um, I've met their mom. She lives on my street. The grandkids do not live with her. You know, stuff I posted earlier.

But hey, I suggest a system that may work, but here come the "HURR DURR BUY A TICKET"

Boomers.

 

nope, FL to DTW

 

Same with EAL non rev procedures. That would be nice to have implemented.

 

Legit question……what other major airline provides Positive Seats to/from work for pilots?

 

JetBlue. Extended until January.

 

In a round-about kind of way…FedEx with their travel account.

 

United is actually being forward-thinking by looking at adding crew bases in popular places to live. EWR, DEN, and SFO just don’t cut it for most people with the cost of living being what it is and inflation/mortgage interest rates ravaging middle class income and wealth.

With flights more full than ever, interest rates steadily rising, single-family home affordability nearly out of reach for most, and bases in high cost of living cities pilots simply can’t/won’t move to base. And an awful commute will only be put up with for so long. Pilots will leave. Legacy airlines are good jobs, but they aren’t even close to what they used to be. There is better quality of life to be had at the LCCs and you’ll make darn near comparable pay.

The legacy airline job has been steadily eroded and at the same time the LCC and major jobs have gotten way better. Hell regional Captains are making more than legacy Captains at this point. Cost of living is through the roof and home affordability is at an all-time low. There isn’t a single base at Delta that is even remotely appealing to most new hires unless they already live there or have family that does. Like it or not Delta is going to have to change with the changing times or be left in the dust. It’s a different world and a different airline than the one many of you came up in.

 

So LCC carriers are basically SWA and JB. Do the ULCC carriers offer a better quality of life and make darn near the pay of legacy carriers?

 

Yes. Captains over there are making $250,000 to $300,000+ /year with more time off/home than our Captains. Certain things in their contracts aren’t as good as ours, sure. But a lot of things are better. It’s like I said above… The legacies have always been the perceived pinnacle of this career. And because of that they have always been perceived as the airlines/jobs with the top pay. And thus they have had no issues staffing their flying at mainline. The LCCs and ULCCs and obviously the regionals have had to figure out how to staff their flying and unsurprisingly they’ve figured out that money and quality of life seems to do the trick. So most (except Allegiant) seem to pay pretty comparably (especially if you take premium flying into account) and have better quality of life/flexibility than the legacy carriers. It may not be that way when the legacies get new contracts. But that’s the way it is now.

Our pilots are too busy gobbling up green slips and chasing the short-term money to realize there is a whole gob or long-term money out there for the taking. Other airlines / sectors of the industry have found it haphazardly by running short of pilots to fly the airplanes, necessitating contract/pay improvements. We are still woefully short staffed at Delta. Just wouldn’t know it with the number of green slips that get picked up. We aren’t exerting and *real leverage.