Exactly. With the regionals now a days paying huge bonuses it makes no sense to do this at all. I don’t care about the pilot environment today when you still have a bunch of regional guys who would want to be here. This is all about getting pilots on property who feel like an indentured serpent to Jetblue. Until the other majors do these types these guys will only be gear monkeys for me. And how will it work when they were told they would be put into the 190 only? Where does seniority fit into that promise? Probably older then most new hire pilots...

 

12 1/2 years for me.

 

His check cleared?

 

lol!

Gp

 

Meh. I don't have much of a problem with this program, mostly because I know that most people, myself included, would have taken advantage of something like this if it existed 16 years ago. I paid $80,000 in the early 2000s for my commercial, CFIs, etc. According to the Google, that's about $110,000 in today's money. Sure, I instructed, then went to a regional and paid my dues for way way way too long, and I finally got here.

If I could have paid like $90,000 (in 2003 money) and gotten on at a company like JetBlue in 2006 or 2007 instead of 2018...do the math, that would have increased my lifetime earnings by a metric #*#* ton of money.

I guess my point is, don't fault a guy for taking advantage of programs that exist now that didn't exist when we were brand new. The industry has changed, and they are simply doing what is best for their careers. It's unfair to expect someone to cost themselves seniority and lifetime earnings simply because we had to struggle more, and we feel like they should have to struggle too. Life ain't fair.

 

Not interested in flying with a switch monkey. I'd like for the FO to have some there there, as in actually have flown planes in the real world, made good decisions and bad, and be able to offer up options based on some experience other than sim session 24b.

 

It’s human nature to expect people to pay their dues. Many of us came up in the early 90s in which pay for training (yep, you paid your employer), time building schemes (pay to fly right seat in a Navajo on a revenue flight), and training contracts were the norm. I started flying in 89 so the last 30 years have been quite a ride. There’s a great article in the March issue of Professional Pilot Magazine that lays out where we were and where we are now. More aptly entitled, “Show me the Money” if you ask me.

That being said, I’ve psychologically come to grips with it is what it is. I spent nearly 3000 hrs doing primary flight instruction. I’ve freight dogged single pilot loaded with ice at 3am over Lake Erie. Done the fracs. The regionals. Twice. Congrats to anyone that gets the career boost. I Just don’t expect someone to look left and whine about having to CFI for 300 hours, or bemoan the fact that after two years they’re not an Airbus CA despite the largest thing flown being a Piper Seneca. Attitude is going to be everything in how this is received. If you’re in this program the learning should (will?) continue for years on the line.

 

No doubt if any whining starts up, it won't be taken well. But it shouldn't be, in my opinion! Don't whine about how hard reserve is when you're at your first airline, earning $90,000 in your first year. Nobody who flew for years on end making under $25,000 a year is going to listen to that for very long.

 

Two decades ago: flew with boatloads of 185hr TT time guys. All their training was for straight 121 and they ended up flying for a crappy ACMI in semi controlled airspace, with controllers who spoke little English and not many ILS-s. Best part was, none of them ever complained about anything, all were eager to learn, and after a few months, you really didn't have to hold there hand anymore.
At NK now, still would take most of those over the grumpy 10 year regional guys that never got the legacy interview.

Definitely would take the shortcut if I could, and so would you.

 

I'm not interested in being the instructor to bring those guys up to speed in the real world, when there are thousands of guys who already have experience who also want the job. I did that in the regionals, and while that was OK for the time, I have no desire to fill that role again at a major airline. I don't see why this is a controversial opinion.