I know a lot of Nurses that make more then the Doctor they work for!! Doctors have to have a lot of insurance!!!

Not sure if that was directed at me, but committing to two years after a sign-on bonus is much better than paying 10k to get a CJO at a regional.
(I was there during the dark ages of PFT. I have never seen the industry so vibrant)

And after further review, it appears the sign-on bonus for prior 135/121 experience is capped at 10k.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/27/pf/jobs/doctors-pay/

It's 2016. Try about 400k as a doc. And most of them just make sure aunt Jenny doesn't have ingrown nails.

Don't know when you last checked salary ranges but piloting isn't even top 50 anymore.

They will have to offer a $30000 sign-on bonus plus all the benefits that my current regional offers so that I would be willing to consider the possibility of jumping ship to either Envoy, PSA or Piedmont.

Most of the data in those analysis are skewed. I know two doctors. Both out of their residency. Neither make close to $400,000. They each make about $250,000 - $300,000 /year. Surgeons make that much. And some certainly make more. One of my best friends dads became a health insurance advisor and gave up his own practice because of the cost of insurance.

Doctors.. like us.. right place right time.. difference between being a vascular surgeon and family doc... nothing wrong with the family doc.. but having a small practice is tough. Insurance companies are cheap, medicare/Medicaid payouts are tough and you need a dedicated staff member just to sort it all out. Office space where I live is extremely expensive. My friend is lucky if he clears 100k a year in his practice. That said, there are plenty of ways he can earn a living if he wanted to end his practice or stop practicing medicine all together. He can work in pharmaceuticals, a health director, or clinical trial coordinator. Hell, he is thinking about just opening a diner he hates his job so much.

That being said, AAG strategy is at a pivotal point and I am not sure they will be able to get in front of the 8 ball. Once they start hiring outside of the flow, I feel they will need to based on the rumors I have heard, the whole flow and the WO second rate pilot scale will take a big hit.

The WO model and second rate pay scale is great when pilots are in demand and supply outweighs need. In a RAA posting the RAA members required a bit over 5000 total new hire pilots for the 2015 calendar year. 2015 only produced less than 3000 new hires with over 35% of them being lateral moves. Therefore, there were only approximately 2000 non prior 121 new hires for RAA members. Sorry I can't look up the link or copy the data right now but its in the RAA website... public area I believe.
I would say just keep applying where you want to go every month whether your a captain or FO. Its only a matter of time when someone will get desperate enough to hire a shlob like me.

Is a bonus still subject to a union dues deduction? If not, THAT is the real reason why a union boss would object to it.

Another example of how the un-savvy get taken to school by the media.
You gush positive things here.

The industry is different now, and changing rapidly. If AAG doesn't want to lose pilots to the JB spirit types, they need pay more, and treat pilots like humans and not slave labor.

To only compare the amount of debt incurred between the two occupations is ridiculous. Doctors don't incur the same amount of liability if they screw up. How much is the airplane worth? How much are the passengers worth???? And then there's everything on the ground....