Golden handcuffs? I think tin is the metal you are looking for....
12 year captain pay including 5% match is $175. Second year FO pay UAL 756 (yes, you can hold that as a second year) including match before profit sharing $187. Oh you have more vacation, CANCELLED! There is no way you would make less by going to a legacy. I have not been successful in getting in, but I'm still trying.

This is a stupid comment. Third year pay at UAL is just a couple dollars behind a maxed out F9 captain. Keep dumpster diving and rationalizing! Golden handcuffs - thanks for the laugh!

If I could get a job for 150k (slight pay cut) and stay in the US I would vanish...... until that happens $&#@%!,

12 year captain.

Looking for a way out.

It will always be ****ty here.

Do you think we are going to be at our current pay in three years?

There is no rationalizing here. Common sense, which you have none!

Rusty Chain is right. It will always be ****ty here with a contract with this management group!

For pilots in the second half of thier careers it’s a little more difficult to leave for the bottom of a legacy right now. I wouldn’t characterize it as golden handcuffs but I definitely know where bolo is coming from. I’m closer to 50 then 40 and tried to leave for a legacy roughly 4 years ago with no luck. Checked all boxes, attended multiple job fairs, had several friends at DL and UAL recs. Met with chief pilots at DL and UAL. I have a 4 year and well over 10,000 hrs and no skeletons. After two years and several thousand hired younger than me at both it was time to take a break from the constant updates and job fairs. Thats when I decided to get involved and do everything I could to try and make f9 a place to hang my hat. After several years of that I’m probably going to update the logbook and start the process of leaving again. But I must say I’m not looking forward to it. At all. I’m probably to jaded and it’s going to be tough to put on a happy face. Not to mention we’re one day closer to the next recession and number 14,000, at DL or UAL won’t be a good place to be when that happens.

You won’t concede that it’s even possible? Common sense does not lead one to believe that 3 years from now Frontier pilots will be working under a different CBA. I hope we are, but at this point I think it’s 50/50.

If it is a new CBA in 3 years or less I would be willing to bet money that it will be sub-par.

If we haven’t been released yet, we won’t at all under this NMB. The only way the company is going to agree to anything is if we allow them to gut our line bidding and the benefits that come with it. Even then they won’t settle for anything over and above Spirit rates.

This is going to be a long fight.

I'm honestly starting to think there's a scarlet letter attached to the chest of anyone with over 10K hours these days. PS. I like your post, transparent and forthright.

From an earlier post
There was a thread on DL where one of their LCAs spoke about training issues. He said the hardest were the 50year old 20 year regional guys (“set in their ways, not used to outside inputs”), followed by military (“always very well prepared, but big change in how things work”). Easiest were the 25 year old 3 year regional FO. I remember this well, as a 50 year old guy who still has(had?) hopes.....

Flew with a lot of 10-15 ex regional captains that gave up on the legacy dream and came to NK after seeing all their FOs “skip the line”.

Funny thing is I thought that might be a bit of an issues as well and made sure all the apps were in when I had 9,950 hrs. I was 39 and a half years old as well. I guess the first update sunk me.