JoeyMeatballs

Hey has anybody else gotten the response, wow! you are an airline pilot, you must make 100k! They sound so enthuised I wouldnt want to ruin it by telling them that I make 20k a year hahaha, anybody else get this kinda thing? Or how about when people say, oh Express? what do you fly those little puddle jumpers, I would never get on one of those! <----that actually annoys the **** out of me cause the smaller the "puddle jumper" the harder the pilots are working

kansas

Sounds like some familiar responses. Hopefully, I actually AM making a lot of money before they realize that I'm not.

Freightpuppy

Had a guy ask me if I want to "fly the big ones" someday while I was standing in front of him in my UPS uniform.

The best one though was this. I was in a UPS Store talking to the clerk. This customer walks in in the middle of our conversation. Long story short I tell the guy "a first year pilot at UPS makes $26,000" (obviously he doesn't know I am talking about myself) and he says "YEAH RIGHT, more like $126,000".

POPA

I haven't gotten that one yet, but I have gotten "You can't possibly be old enough to be a pilot!"

rytheflyguy

My personal favorite was my wife's uncle. "The problem is pilots make too damn much money!"

My wife nearly lunged across the table at him as she yelled "Yeah that 20K he cleared his last year sure seemed excessive!!"

Short Bus Drive

I don't get the pay thing alot. What I get is, "YOU HAVE TO START AT THE BOTTOM AGAIN?!!!"
I have to explain this is not like any other industry. You can have decades/hours of experience, but if you go to another company, BOTTOM FEEDER!

Skygirl

I think a lot of people (at least around here) are sympathetic to pilot's salary woes and pay cuts.

I do hear quite often though, from both male and female, never to date or marry one, that they make lousy boyfriends and husbands. Why do so many people say that?

JoeyMeatballs

Yeah my girlfriend is constantly asking me, "well what if 20 years from now you are making good money and another "9/11" happens and we have a house and three kids?" Kinda scary cause I really don't know what I would do, everybody tells me to save money, but i don't see how thats possible

tomgoodman

Perhaps the reasoning is the same as that expressed in an old song:

"If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life,
Never make a pretty woman your wife..."

PLTwnab

I think it is because of many reasons. First of all, chances are, if you've always wanted to be a pilot, you like living a free lifestyle where you are not bogged down with worries from a significant other. Pilots and cops alike are stereotyped to be players. Plus, they have hectic schedules, And not only that, but they also tend to go through financial difficulties so much...But yeah, I even still hear that airline pilots make around 100k, even after 9/11 and the fairly recent comair crash. I think people assume that pilots are loaded because pilots used to make the same as doctors with half the amount of schooling. It's kind of stuck in ppl's heads that pilots make their money "the easy way" and always will. They also assume that pilots are just being a bunch of pansies by always going on strike, because ppl think pilots are "making more than them" and still complaining about it...