I admire your optimism. I am just being realistic considering F9 has endured a rocky road in the last decade or so and hope they get a good break with their new masters.

Unfortunately given the size frontier has remained and only with an In-house Union, any future significant increases will be fought hard with a tough opponent and could have catastrophic results.

At this point any new hire should take employment at F9 as a stepping stone to the big 3.

Don't settle in this current landscape. It can cost you millions in the long run.

My 2 cents.

And you Delta guys wonder why you have that reputation!

I'm not advocating folks do anything. You have to look at the context of the thread in which I was replying. SWA is just the airline someone else brought up. It's in regards to using math based on present day reality vs. starry-eyed speculation.

What reputation? He speaks the truth.

The reputation for Delta pilots to interject into every compensation discussion. I don't work for F9, but I also don't care what a Delta FO makes either. F9 pilots have a long road ahead, it just comes across as more Delta arrogance that they are known industry wide for.

Well he could have used a little more tact. But you can't argue that the pay is pretty low.

Is it that Delta is arrogant or F9 pilots are envious? I'm sure a little of both, but I can't imagine how anyone would have just taken offense to him mentioning his salary (in a conversation regarding F9 compensation/benefits vs others) against the delusions so many here have without envy being the issue.

Annnnnyway, I have just been reminded why I try not to look at these threads too often. Best of luck to us all.

Projecting wages and the size of seniority lists over 2 or 3 decades as if things were static is pointless. This industry is the antonym of stability.

What if you were considering America West in the early 80's. Or Southwest in the 70's? Granted I don't know what they payed at the time, but I'm sure some lippy Delta pilot would have chimed in about how much more THEY make.

What if you'd finally ARRIVED at TWA, or PanAM, or Eastern?

I've seen guys furloughed for years and years AND YEARS from the big three.

It's so stupid it's funny that anyone thinks they know what things will look like in 2045.

Go where you'll be happy, avoid commuting if you can, love your wife, your kids and live within your means. Invest your money wisely, have business that earns outside of your airline job, and recognize all these pay charts with their 401K contributions are meaningless as soon as you're diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a pilot from another airline saying how much they make. I want a future contract to be industry standard, and that requires knowing what industry standard is... Of course there is a difference between a LCC and a legacy that offers 1st Class tickets and widebody intl flights. They bring in far more revenue than we do, but I believe we should be compensated roughly the same as their narrow body pilots. We have serious work to do to achieve that goal, no doubt.

Pay rate at an LCC trending more towards ULCC that's coming out of the wreckage of a buyout from a regional holdings corp combined with a forced BK/concessionary contract being compared to an uber legacy that's printing money with a crap-ton of money in the bank is apples to bowling balls.

Not that it REALLY matters, but at one time a new hire at F9 would make more first year and probably second, than your first/second year at NWA.

But like I said, the comparison isn't as simply as you're trying to make it.