Too many times I fly with people who don't know what time the door needs to be closed, or don't do anything to instill a sense of urgency in the gate agent or ground crew to make sure we push on time. It happens a lot with a 'oh well, not my fault' kind of attitude. Just my opinion, based on a few years of observation.

I do want to bring up the counter to this advice.

The loss of 50 seaters will be over a multi year span, and its unknown who will take on larger airframes. Further lack of RFP completion could quickly switch those airplanes to someone else, or a CH11 could move the planes to another airline. Upgrade times will fall all around with upcoming attrition, and time to upgrade is a huge unknown based on the many factors that go into that in this industry. Attrition plays a large part, for example at Eagle the attrition could be massive very fast.

I would not go with RAH based on that one short sighted advice in the post I quoted. The future is unknown, but one thing is very likely, and that is you will be less happy and make tons less money at RAH. Say you have a 4 year upgrade at both airlines and spend 2 years as Captain, if hired today, before moving to a major. In that time, the difference between RAH and SKYW pay wise, could be about $90,000 total. That is almost the cost of becoming a pilot now a days. I did $10,000 year the first 2 years and $15,000 year 3 and 4. Then as a captain I did $20,000/yr. Getting to a major is the goal, and is a huge pay jump, however just going off who has more larger planes is a short sited view, and you need to factor short term pay differences. Also RAH via CHQ has a ton of 50 seaters that will offset the growth.

That could also be because the captain has come to the conclusion that regardless of what he/she says to the gate agent or ground crew that if that same urgency is not met by them, then it is totally out the captain's control. The only thing that the crew then could do is put on a delay code.

While that is sometimes the case, it is not always the case, and as a former corporate manager now in my 40's, I assure you I can tell the difference. I was not referring to those times when it is obvious that there really is nothing we can do, but those times that there are things we can do, yet don't.

Unless it's the freedom leg ;). Also, I don't think you will be overstepping anyone by encouraging the gate agent and ramp agents for the on time departure. My question I guess is, why wait for the captain?

I don't think asking the rampers to throw bags faster is gonna have the desired effect. And when they hand us the CLR, half a second later the boarding door is on the way up. Unless we're broke. Mechanical problems dwarf any other issues I've seen on the line. Why do they wait until the last possible day to schedule an LC2 on a 35 minute turn? Why do we wait until NEFs drop dead so we have to cancel a revenue flight and ferry it to ATL? I think most crews are confronted by these systemic problems, realize there's nothing a guy on the line can do, and decide to stop chasing our tails and just focus on doing our job and let the other things run their course.

$10, $10, $:eek:15, and $20,000/yr as captain? Where is the pay that low???:confused:

I'm not talking about the things that we obviosly don't have any control over, but merely the things that we do, yet don't act on.

There are some people that I have flown with who will get bent out of shape if I, the FO, take some initiative to try to move things along. I do it, with a receptive CA, but during those times that it will obviously cause conflict, I leave it alone. He/she is, after all, the Captain. Still bugs me.

Knowing three people who work at rah, I did an estimated income difference between working at rah and a stronger paying regional such as skyw exjt or eagle. This includes hard and soft pay.

How hard is it to get iah right out of training? All I hear is crj talk but I want the erj. Can I pick or stipulate that plane if hired?