Nobody want to do this job anymore! They turned it into a nothing more then a public transit job! if im gonna spend 200k im gonna be a lawyer, doctor, banker or work on wallstreet and steal your money. 137k on average to work every holiday be away from home half the week and to miss my kids growing up, no thanks! ill buy my own plane and fly around if i want to fly that bad

 

Not to mention were all one medical away from being on the street every six months. Any other job i can still work for a living disabled

 

It’s a scam nowadays. Little to no job security, flawed seniority system, intense scrutiny, ever-waning authority, crumby hotels in the middle of nowhere; all for an average paycheck. Very few career people supporting the operation anymore which increases pilot workload and liability.

Lemme take out a loan for 200k, hope my timing is perfect, and I become a hero. Said no one.

 

First three I guess are debatable.
Ever-waning authority. Not so sure. If I want more fuel, dispatch gives me more fuel. Of course I usually have a reason for asking other than "I'm scared."
Crumby hotels in middle of nowhere. Actually, the hotels we get aren't too bad and we have some input. Yes, the short ones will be close to the airport where there are usually fewer dining options. But most of us prefer more sleep on the shorts anyway. NYC, YUL, YYZ, BOS longs are crumby hotels in the middle of nowhere?? Seriously?? How much more in the middle can you get. Definitely better than in the days when KF was attacked in her room and put out of work for over a month. That was the wakeup call for the company.
The pay throughout the industry is rising rapidly, though granted XJT is falling behind but the retention numbers probably reflect that.

As for the 200K loan taken out to get the job I'm sorry, but only fools did that and I have little sympathy for fools.

 

I may have spent ~35K, and I goofed around a lot with that. There was a lot of family car type flying in that amount as well... not just $100 hamburgers and shooting over to the closest airport with an approach below mins. Degree not included though.

I think I took a bigger pay hit going to 1st year pay than I spent getting to my commercial multi.

 

What exactly would United gain in a purchase that is desired or that can’t be had for free? They don’t want 50 seat jets, they want big rj’s. The only reason that the 50 seat flying is at the current level is that scope is maxed out and the MEC has said loud and clear that relief is not for sale. The pilots can be had by simply inviting them to interview. All of the regionals are struggling to hire pilots and the quality of what they are getting is scary. Multiple failures in the sim, 100 hours of IOE, etc. There has never been a guarantee of a job with the majors. There has never been job security once you are there. Just look to Eastern, Pan Am, Braniff, etc. The regionals are stepping stones and a great place to gain high quality experience that simply qualifies you to apply to the majors. There has never been an entitlement to a job after a certain number of years in the trenches. The pay and working conditions while building that experience has always been bad, but it seems now that people aren’t willing to “pay their dues”. They want a defined path with a guaranteed result while having a comfortable quality of life during the whole process. This entitlement mindset is resulting in a serious staffing problem at the regional level. My guess is that after UAL signs a new contract with the pilots we will see a significant order for the max7 or CJ series type jet which will park the bulk of the 50 seat fleet. That will stimulate mainline hiring, but it won’t guarantee seats to employees of specific regional companies. The other option is for the company to buy another fleet type that would allow up to 60-70 more large rj’s under the current contract. If the company bought another fleet to replace the 50 seat flying, and if they gave all of the new large rj’s to ExpressJet, the company would be over staffed. I think that a more likely and cost affective outcome is that they would be divided between the companies that currently fly them. This would free up the recently displaced 50 seat pilots to seek employment at the surviving regionals or seek employment elsewhere. This is just a business and better companies have gone away only to be missed by the former employees and aviation geeks.

 

A third option is to spellcheck your post before submitting it and realize that autocorrect doesn’t know that the correct word is cost effective and not affective. Pilots are stupid the world over.

 

If you think the regional industry is in the state that its in now because of entitlement, you're out of your ****ing mind.

 

The entitlement mindset is a big contributing factor, not the only reason. The stepping stone companies have always been a bad place to be. I sure don’t miss the days of sleeping on the floor in a crash pad with a bunch of other guys, the old reserve regulations where you were continuously in rest until they called you so you could start your 16 hour day, horrible maintenance, extremely low pay, fly or you’re fired, failed sim and you’re fired, much harder training, and the list goes on. Even then there was a much larger pool of people willing to do their time because they knew that it would most likely pay off in the long run. Today people don’t want to do that. The pay still stinks and life at the regionals is no bed of roses, but you’re still flying modern equipment, most with some form of union contract, better maintenance, etc. Times have changed. People don’t want to do all of that work and deal with low quality of life in the process. They want good pay, great work rules, and a defined path to the majors. The path to the majors hasn’t changed, people’s willingness to go down that path has. That is where the entitlement mindset comes in.

 

Calling it entitlement in this case is simply wrong.

Demanding that things be the way they should have been all along is not indicative of a sense of entitlement.

Further-walking to school uphill both ways does not really wash in the real world. It is at best great bar talk for someone who no longer has to make that walk.

Times have changed in more ways than most industry veterans realize. The student loan debt carried by many industry rookies absolutely demands better wages.

As far as doing the crashpad thing and commuting-I remember quite a bit of beeching and moaning back in the day when I had to do it. I guess everyone in that crashpad with me had a a sense of entitlement? Or perhaps we did it and beeched and moaned about it, just like kids are doing now. The difference is social media has made them more aware of options and given them a much louder platform from which to beech and moan.

Please don't put rose colored glasses on when using hindsight. It is a shame to look back on the dues you paid and not also appreciate the beeching and moaning you were most likely doing.