So I am one of the guys complaining about pay and how terrible PSA is?


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So if you point out the pit falls your bad but if you blow sunshine up their arse your a good guy. Hmmmm.

Gotta be positive, otherwise you're one of 'them'.

There’s nothing wrong with being positive. I’ve always done my best to be impartial. If PSA isn’t a good fit for someone’s personal situation/goals I’ve never hesitated to be up front about it with them if asked.

I think we are benefiting slowly from a somewhat decent working relationship between the association and PSA. Much better than both Envoy and Piedmont seem to be at the least. We don’t have the pay and contract that Republic and Endeavor have but we have other positives they don’t.

None of that has changed much since I’ve been here and I can certainly remember when the relationship between ALPA and management was much more tepid. I’m skeptical that PSA will see a contract as good as Republic or Endeavor or even their pay rates (at least in my time here). Classes are still full, we are still growing slowly, and attrition is manageable. The flow and it’s associated attrition are still a huge attractor for pilots. But that doesn’t mean we won’t slowly and steadily make improvements to our existing contract.

I’ll admit I come across as mostly negative, but I’m pretty sure about 80%-90% of the pilot group feels the same way. Whether it’s FOs that I fly with, overhearing conversations in the crew room, or as I walk past Starbucks. Its certainly not all I hear pilots talk about but it’s definately the general consensus of the pilot group. The morale is the lowest I’ve seen it in my time here. I will say though, that new change in union leadership seems to be a lot better so far. Hopefully it continues.

I may be negative but I would challenge anybody to prove any of my statements wrong. I try to give out the facts for new hires so they know what the realities are instead of what the recruiters tell them. I agree we’re definitely not the worse, but the list of more desirable places is growing. It’s not just limited to Endeavor anymore.

The only positives I see here are SAP and flow. With that said though, SAP can only be utilized by half of the pilot group right now and the 6-8 hour processing times now are ridiculous. Flow is good for me as I’m in the top 20%, but 10/month for almost 1900 pilots is meaningless for a new hire.

Again, I challenge anybody to disprove any of my statements.

Uhhh... I can certainly remember when morale was much lower than it is now.

I admittedly don’t fly with many reserve FOs though. Most lineholders I fly with seem mostly positive about things. Or at least not overly-negative. As a line-holder you just do your job and go home. No one really bothers you.

That being said reserve here is not good at all. Hopefully some of the new reserve rules being implemented help alleviate some of that.

And yes, SAP is the big positive to PSA. And despite the processing times I still end up with a pretty good schedule every month. I had 11 off in January and still ended up crediting 115 hours. A bit unusual but I had some really high credit trips. Would have been really great if our new premium pay was in effect for January. In February I decided to take it easy with 15 off and 80 credit.

Morale was good when I started. Late 2015/early 2016 it started going down. PSA upped the FO pay to match the competition, and morale improved. 3 years later as everyone else is making improvements and we’re slowly going backwards with the LOAs of the last 2 years and morale is down in the tank again. My impression is it’s worse than it was 3 years ago. I guess it’s subjective.

That's exactly what I'm seeing. For a little while, it seemed the company/AAG was going to do what it took to not only get people in the door, but keep them around, and it was working. Over time, things became markedly improved at a couple of different regionals, but it made sense that we stayed where we were, as we do have the flow. Then just about every other place, save Envoy and Piedmont, started improving their work rules/compensation. All this while seeing "most respected regional" shoved down our throats, like saying it more made it even more true or something.

With that said, most people on BSL aren't complaining constantly about the company, but how the union responds to them. Such a large portion of our pilot group is now on reserve, and they see the 'wonderful' treatment from scheduling, including things that should be considered contract violations, but are simply ignored by the grievance committee on the regular. I know guys who have been here 3+ years who are considering leaving because of how bad it is. But then we're told "stop complaining, they company has agreed to pay you extra, if you work on one of your 11 days off!"

I actually think using the slogan “most respected regional” is a huge factor. It’s almost comical at this point and it makes people more frustrated than they already are.

As much as people despised TR, he did say something on last year’s conference call that I completely agree with...

“American will never be a leader. American will always be a follower”

This is evident today and back in 2016. As everyone else improves pay and/or work rules PSA and the AA wholly owneds are always one of the last to the party. Say we do get raises soon... then in 2-3 years the pilot pool starts to dry up again and the regionals start upping their pay once again. I’ll bet a year’s salary that PSA, Envoy, and Piedmont will be one of the last places to make any improvements.

That’s alright tho. We all make sacrifices for the brand. We get it back with our profit sharing... (sarcasm)