captainv

My company gets whatever flying mainline management feels like throwing our way in any given month. It's also strictly governed by what's allowed under the mainline pilots' contract, so at least at one point in time, it was up to them.

My airplane is 1/3 the size of most mainline aircraft, so no, I never expected to get paid mainline rates. That said, when making my decision, I chose the company with the best contract, best work rules and best potential future (at that time anyway). Back then, Comair looked like a no-brainer. Now, not so much. We've been underbid repeatedly and lost flying, and, sad to say, we've voted in concessions ourselves and lost even more flying.

My career there will end in about a year, but I've chosen not to go to another regional. Not worth it. I hope to be leaving pax flying entirely, so I guess I can puff out my chest like you do for taking the high road.

I felt like I did my homework before jumping to the regionals, but expectations were a lot different then. Even so, most people don't see the industry for what it is until they're already in it.

rickair7777

There's no law that says you have to subsidize your competitors. The government may (or may not) have to take the lowest bid, but private companies certainly do not. They can simply disqualify any bidder for any reason they want.

If I were a major airline for example, I would not keep RAH employed as a capacity provider any longer than contractually required. They are now a competitor, makes no sense to fuel their growth with pay-for-feed cash.

Phuz

Fair enough, feel free to replace those three letters with LCC/UAL/AMR/ALK/B6/LUV or whatever your favorite three letter cocktail may be.

Everybody always argues over who is doing what flying at what subpar rate of the week while completely ignoring the customer on this 'chicken or the egg'-esque issue of who's to blame for the demise of the professional pilot.

If we step back and look not at who is doing what flying at what pay, but instead take a look at who is serving our customers and at what quality - you can easily see that regardless of who is to blame, the regional product itself needs to be put to pasture. Even the senior 777 captain should be concerned (i know, he isn't) about losing customers to the airlines that don't outsource - simply due to the level of service/quality/professionalism.

Regionals are not regional. We need to call them sub-contractors. Then, we need to understand that YOUR customers do not know/care which subcontractor they are being lifted by, but they do know that they are getting crappy service. The current model is for mainline ABC to replace subcontractor XYZ with LMN which provides equally crappy service at a lower rate. The customer doesn't know or care about who the sub-contractor is, but they will absolutely look at going elsewhere for a better product.

The punk kids with the i-pods and backpacks and gooey hair-gel are shuttling your customers around the country, and they are doing it with YOUR logo on their tail. Time to end scope concessions? I think so.

Killer51883

how is the service on a regional airline any different than the service on the mainline flight. The flight attendants are usually just as bitter and the passengers get to deal with the same clueless uncaring gate agents. I realize on a 777 you will be on longer legs that you will need food on and a CRJ there is no room for a galley. The service is the same crap from the airline no matter how big or small the airplane is. A regional has nothing to do about the service, you could put the same airplanes on at delta or usair or who ever and have the same issues if not more.

Ohh and I have seen just as many mainline guys with gooey hair sun glasses and Ipods. I have also seen some mainline pilots who look like they are going to stroke out after push back or have a very liberal AME that will let any thing slide.

forgot to bid

That's absolutely how I see it. The only thing I'd add is if you can get out from the contract, say for RAH being declared a single transportation system and thus in violation of your pilot's PWA, then don't hesitate to do so.

FlyJSH

The FAs at the regional are half the age of the mainline.

TrojanCMH

Republic, Chautauqua, and Shuttle were all operating as a single transportation system well before the Frontier deal and no one said anything about the 190's being flown. How is this any different? I think the non action for the couple years we were flying 190's and the 86 seat 175's for Airways for who knows how long may hurt you in the courtroom. Either way I agree you guys should keep up the fight to reign in your scope...

Fishfreighter

Fixed it for u. Moving up isn't automatic as thosands of RJ CAs can attest.

Unfortunately by working for scraps you limit the chances u have to "move on." You may want to consider that.

forgot to bid

I agree, it's been a scope violation for 1 year and almost 6 months now.

I don't think that's long enough to lose the right to fight for it. Besides, it's not been that long since it started and only a few days since more evidence came to light... like evidence that can prove STS.

forgot to bid

Evidently thats not true at either Coex or ASA.