Hey guys,I feel for you. I left Henson because the promise of a flow into Piedmont (the original) was never going to happen. I have spent the last 22 years at AWA, now Us Airways, and I'm glad I left. Us Airways sucks. It sucked since the 3 way in 88 and it continues today. Most of the East pilots forget that 25 years ago US Air/Piedmont still had turboprops. US Airways was always a regional airline with jets. Nothing wrong with that except they believe they are some major legacy carrier like Delta or United or American. Nothing could be further from the truth. Arrogance is scary when you combine it with stupid.

If you ride on West metal you will be treated well, although most West guys don't know who is wholly owned and who is contract. We all wish we had the jet flying in house, hell, we had Dash 8s at AWA as part of the mainline.

If we have the same you uniform Silver over Blue bars then we are wholly owned.

The West side of the company is happy to take damn near anybody..and I mean that with no disrespect to the East guys, I don't know what their deal is. I'm not a Captain, but as far as I'm concerned, if you're a wholly owned, they you're family and we'll treat you as such. Everybody else we'll treat like welcome guest.

I did have one of our guys tell me they hauled a Mesa Dash FO from Florida to Denver. As luck would have it, turns out the AWA FO was finishing his trip and was going to be riding on the Mesa FO's first leg to get home. Guy says, "hey, I have a lot of trouble on your flights. Your guys don't seem to try very hard to get Jump Seaters on." Mesa guy says, "yeah, a lot of our Captains aren't real big on OAL guys sitting up front. I think the guy I'm paired with doesn't like main-line guys up front". Sure enough, our FO gets the thumbs down, "Sorry, Captain says won't work 'cause of W&B."

If we don't look out for each other, who will?

From Talking to fellow Piedmoster that commute from the west coast; it is a big difference when jumpseating/nonrev with the west coast guys.
They are always pleased to have you on board and try to accomodate you .... Thanks a lot guys

I once was jumpseating from Tampa to BWI on MetroJet, back when I was a lowly 1900 guy from AirMidwest. I'm in the jumpseat, and the Captain reluctantly takes me on. He decides ON THE TAXI OUT that I can't come. We pull into the blocks, he gets out his FOM, procedes to find where it says I can go. Me and the FO try the best we can to prove to him its ok. I'm in a USAir Express uniform, mind you, with USAir Express on my ID. He tools in the block for 15 minutes, both engines running, before pulling the trigger. What a doosh.

Never had a problem with the westies, great bunch of guys.

Funny thing about it, I'm an AWAC guy and I never had a problem with any jumpseat, both east or west. In fact, the east guys never, not once, have ever given me, or any of my fellow employees a problem.

As a frequent commuter who has a relatively awkward commute routing, I try and stay offline as much as I can. Very seldom have I had a bad experience with anyone.

I just appreciate all the rides I've received from almost every carrier out there, and am happy to reciprocate anytime.

addition-I've had the aforementioned mixed luck with US mainline myself, but on the other hand, I've had a few of those guys go to some far lengths to make sure I got on the flight. As long as you get to base/home when you need to is what matters.......I'll take anything that gets me there.

It does NOT matter whether its a Wholly owned carrier or a contract provider - because either way - IT EQUALS LESS MAINLINE JOBS. PERIOD.

What is truely annoying are wholly owned carrier pilots who THINK they're entitled something from their mainline counterparts....hahahahaha!!!

In my understanding there's a big difference between wholly owned and contract carriers. I agree it equals fewer mainline jobs, which is not good for anybody. Most wholly owned employees understand that they're generating profit/reaping benefits of the same holding company that the mainline is. US Airways is also a wholly owned subsidiary of US Airways Group holdings, just like Piedmont and PSA are. We are all generating cash for the same company, and it's all going into one giant pot. Contract carriers are an entirely different beast.

While I agree it is not ideal to have regional airlines at all - and all the flying should be done by the mainlines - the fact is they do exist.

Finally, the vast majority of wholly owned pilots don't think they're entitled to anything. They just want to not be treated like a red headed stepchild. More often than not I think this occurs because mainline pilots don't know the difference between a wholly owned and a contract carrier, in which case it's much more productive to understand their point of view and educate them to the reality - if you do it right, they'll appreciate it and come away from the situation with a better understanding of the dynamics between the airlines.

Yeah screw those KIDS who took the jets when mainline gave them away. Forget the fact when they got them they took in lots of mainline pilots who were on the street then when time came to pay the little brother back with preforcial hiring mainline pilots said FU. Speaking about entitlement how about the mainline guys whoride in the back without the common curtisy to step up front and at least say hi. It goes both ways.