So, I'm a POS pilot? Dude I wish we were face to face. You have no clue what some of us had to do to get here.

 

I agree....however to work together, we need to treat each other as equals...I still see a lot of patronizing "we are superior" attitude from many of your colleagues.

The Colgan incident is the exception, not the rule. As you know better than most, at ASA, many pilots are more experienced than many at the majors. We have a great safety record...better than some majors. I have had more than one former ASA pilot tell me that the ASA training department is better than what they experience at the majors...including Delta and Southwest.

Mutual respect as equals is the first step...

 

Joe, as you know that is a two way street.

I could get in to the difference of training and the different needs, but yes, ASA is a top notch operation, no doubt about that.

 

In the end we safely fly pax around in our respective aircraft with big widgets or wavy gravy on the tail. We are equals on that regard.

The two companies though are different on many different levels. The biggest ones being the paycheck, work rules, and scope of operation...

 

It is indeed a two way street...Has there been much effort to treat us as equals? It is you who is giving the "Rodney King - we all need to get along" speech"....The past doesn't say that is something your side really believes....I can accept it if I believe it is real....If not, we can continue with the status quo...The choice is one for your side to decide...

Yes you could, but the facts say that mistakes can be made at ALL levels and not all regionals are the same....given that, why are regionals being lumped into the same group?

 

I agree.

1. Paycheck has betting getting closer...That's no surprise. That was the goal.

2. Work rules have been getting closer..That's no surprise...I wouldn't trade my QOL for yours for any price.

2. "Scope of operation"...Can you clarify that one?

 

I agree with you that that was the goal. But paychecks getting closer has more to do with the hit the majors took bringing them down. My current concessionary rate at an "industry leading CBA" is STILL less than my last carriers, and that rate was concessionary as well.

True, but see the above. My last carriers "regional" work rules were better than many legacies, till UAL/DAL's set a new standard. When UAL took concessions, we STILL had better rules than UAL (and some others) had.

I'm just using CAL here as an example, can't really measure DAL (high end) and not UAL (bottom end) in this comparison.

This ties into another thread where I said the same thing. But of the guys I know that have gone to CAL, NONE of them regret it. They are glad they made that choice, although the first six months completely sucked due to the substandard treatment. The first year or two may have sucked as well while they waited for their pay to catch up to what they left. They make that all too common statement that their "worst day at CAL will ALWAYS be better than than their best day at XJT". I'll take their word for it. But the one big thing they miss, and the one thing they wish they had was the work rules they had at XJT.

 

That's true....that's a result of the analogy of pay and workrules being like water...They seek out the same level. Regional pay and workrules came up, and mainline came down.


Help me understand this....They wish they had the XJT workrules, they hated the first 6 months, and they gave up all of the seniority and longevity....Why is it better than what they had at XJT? I really don't understand what is better...

 

Well, sort of, in some cases. The point I was getting at was that regionals have gained while the majors lost. But not always the case. Like I said, I'm making less now than I did for the year 2002 for the same seat and I'm on a larger aircraft, about 7K less a year. AND having to spend more time away from home/in the cockpit to do it. Crap flows downhill in this thing.

The classic case of breaking the golden handcuffs. You've been in this long to know this one principle. You can have it pretty good at a regional. You can make good money at a regional, etc. But at the end of the day, it's STILL a regional. You're the whipping boy of your management, who is in turn the whipping boy of the management(s) your company feeds for. And all the market force crap that goes along with it. OR, in you're specific case, you're the whipping boy of your management, who is the whipping boy of the company that owns your company, that is the whipping boy of the managements your company feeds for. That makes you the whipping boy thrice removed. But to answer you question of what makes it better? As we all know, money can be a great equalizer.

I'd preferably be the number one whipping boy.

 

Regionals were created by the majors in order to do an end run around mainline,so good luck getting that genie back in the bottle.
They know exactly what they are doing so the question is how do you beat them at their own game ?

Fred