Their pay came up significantly. And then it stayed steady while everyone else ate crow for a decade after 9/11.
Another example of "it's all relevant to timing."

IMHO, if it were a contest, the LUV pilots would have won the last 20 years for U.S. pilot labor.

Fixed my quote.

I see, thanks

Just flew with a jr captain (Spirit) and he is going to United. There will be a handful of the younger captains that will leave. Especially if they live in a place where one of the big 3 has a domicile that their current company doesn't offer. This Captain lives in DEN. Last I heard spirit lost 18 first officers to other airlines in January. We hired 20 and 2 of them called and said they have accepted other positions prior to reporting for class. We have since lowered our mins.

If (or when ) they close ACY Sure will make the decision a lot easier lol

I'm a 8 year Spirit Captain and have apps out at the Big 4.
College degree, no DUIs/accidents, legacy internship, job fairs, recs. No calls yet, but I'm out of here if the phone rings. I've flown with great people here and had a good time, but the pay and retirement aren't even in the same ball park as a legacy. Spirit also runs an unreliable, dirty, and unprofessional airline. It's been bad since I've been here. Some things have improved, others have gotten worse; it gets old and degrades morale. I'm hoping the grass is greener.

I left JB after 4.5 years and a 320 upgrade in hand. With 30 years left it was worth over 1.5 million in pay and retirement to go to United. (Prior to the contract extension). I'm coming up on one year at UAL. I Used the current rates at ual vs current rates at JB to compare. Only two assumptions I made were narrow body captain at year 12 and widebody CA at year 21. Fwiw- I would have retired around 47 at JB and will retire around 300 at United. There are a lot of other reasons why I left also but these numbers made the decision easier.

You say "Big 4", you'd leave Spirit as an 8 year CA to to go SWA?

You live in one of their bases?

I do. I'd also gladly live in most of their bases. In 2015 as a year 8 captain, I made $143,000. I don't try hard or work hard, but am too senior for JRMs worth doing. Most 8 year FOs I know in my city at SWA make low 200,000s who don't try hard. $250,000 who hussle.

Reserve lines have 15 days off which is better than many lines here. No more than 3 day trips, no redeyes. I know I'd pull gear for a long time, but the pay, days off, and work rules are vastly superior and worth leaving for. Plus, SWA is due for a new contract soon.

That's impressive that SWA F/Os can make a quarter of a million a year. Precisely why our bs min day of 4 hours needs to be replaced by solid trip rigs.

We are so far behind at Spirit that it's pretty hopeless. I'm pretty angry at myself for not trying to leave sooner. Oh well, I may never get the call so best I can do is update update update and work on making this place better in the meantime