JamesNoBrakes

Unfortunately, these young people are not given the entire story, the information is not out there for the taking, they suffer from a situation where they are surrounded by family members, various school officials, and others, encouraging them to get their education and get in the workforce. The truth might be somewhere in this cloud, but if it conflicts with what the school is encouraging or wants it's likely to at least be de-emphasized and at worst kids are outright lied to. Now you add to that a young kid that has taken high school economics, but that doesn't really understand economics, compounding interest, deferments, cost of living 5 or more years later, where he is even going to be living, and so on, not to mention they have probably never paid back anything of value in their life, and it quickly gets unrealistic to expect these kids to make the right decisions and actually understand the decisions. This is something that impacts their lives so greatly that they may not be able to get out from the debt for 20 years or more, not to mention what happens if they lose their medical or get multiple checkride failures later on. Yeah, kids sometimes sign bad car purchase deals, and that is usually a good life lesson, but how many times over or for how long do they need to learn that they shouldn't have funded their aviation career with loans? 30 years? 40 years? For the rest of their lives? I understand that they should pay back the money if at all possible and I'm all for that, but it's a little more complicated than that.

It's like your grandma getting all of her life savings taken away by some con man. Sure, she signed the line, and maybe it was technically legal, but someone just took advantage of her, because she didn't understand the connotations of signing and the entire situation.

I'm all for making them pay back the money if at all possible. On the other hand, if it's not possible because the bottom fell out, the world wasn't as promised, the people that made those promises should be held accountable too. If there's no possible way for them to pay back the money, the loan companies should come after the school and they should pay the difference or what the student can not. I bet real fast the entrance requirements would go way up and we'd get people that actually want to be there, are capable of being there, and have the financial resources to be there. The school would also take job-placement seriously and the fact that you earn so little when starting out as a pilot would force them to come up with better solutions, more bridge programs, searching for partners that need pilots and understand the known quality of the institution, and so on.

outaluckagain

I really hope they don't do this. I am aware of the problems people are having with repaying their school loans, but I believe now is the time to let the supply side catch up with companies. Don't give any incentive to become a pilot until the wages catch up, and this means increase considerably.

I'm thinking that loan forgiveness may make people think the career is acceptable with the low pay, since the loans don't have to be repaid.

Hey, I went through a tough time with my college loans as well as the rest of us. I just don't think that now is the time to start "inventing" ways of getting people to start this career. Let the supply and demand side of this equation finally work in our favor.

JamesNoBrakes

OR (in reference to my post above) we concede that some people won't make it, it doesn't matter how hard you try or how bad you want it, and we are "ok" with these people dropping out of life, becoming homeless or starving. It goes against what most of our parents taught, but no matter how much you "believe" in something, life happens, like losing your medical, having some sort of tragedy or catastrophic live event, and so on, and there is no way that many of these people will be able to do what they want or achieve their dreams. That's a horrible thing to teach children, but when we realize the inevitability of some of these things, it kind of makes us hypocrites when we go back and think about it.

block30

Wow. You can delete that, but Red already quoted you. How disgusting and foolish. Credibility blown, not that the whole quit your job argument held water anyways.

HIFLYR

Wow I do not know what to say I did not know a money back guarantee existed in any college field. What if a doctor fails his board exams? Plenty of people have gotten real expensive Degrees in things like philosophy, literature etc. only to find there is little no market for their talents or they have low pay. Do I have this right a 18 can sign up for military service and all that entails. However he does not have the mental ability to research if his chosen field will realistically pay enough to pay off his student loans all in the internet age?

Erdude32

Any pilot who works for an airline that filed Bankruptcy should seriously consider doing the same thing. Especially if you were displaced or downgraded or went from line holder to reserve. The student loans were taken out with an expected level of income and a reasonable expectation of career progression, NOT a freakin decade at a regional. There's a workaround on private student loans in a Ch13. Stop paying the loans if you've been placed in a financial position by intentional decisions by management & whipsaw. The loans will be charged off and sold to a 3rd party collector. At this point it's no longer a student loan but its a privately held debt. It is dischargable at this point. The Ch13 process will enable you to become financially viable again and with the slate wiped clean & a Zero debt:income ratio your credit will fully recover much quicker than you could imagine. A Bankruptcy is nothing more than a financial/business decision and should be treated as such. There is nothing morally wrong with it, otherwise our employers wouldn't have done it right??? It would b EASY to explain in a future interview as well. You were forced into it by your carrier & subsequent cut in pay.

I wasn't there at the time, but I've been told that at DAL during the concessions & Bankruptcy that there were Suicides, Divorces & foreclosures. If THAT is ok, then why isn't it ok for the worker bees to do the same?

JamesNoBrakes

Then that school didn't do a good job selecting a student that was going to complete what they started and they didn't do a good job preparing and training the student. It should be in the school's best interest to select students that will actually be able to pass the board exams, let alone providing adequate schooling to do so.

cubbies4life

"Idiots" like Red are what is right for the industry. Pilots not working for the airlines is the only thing that might improve the QOL there. With the NMB and longevity based pay, labor has little to no bargaining power in negotiations.

tom11011

It's funny, most of America is 2 missing paychecks away from bankruptcy lol. You guys should be refocusing your efforts on dealing with concessionary contracts and not individual pilots financial situations.

Bankruptcy exists for companies and individuals for a reason, to be used. Otherwise we wouldn't have it right?

But by all means, divide and conquer, your overseers love that

makersmarc

Bankruptcy exists to make a certain degree of risk taking acceptable. If bankruptcy were to be allowed for student loans, there would be no student loans because the default rate would be so high. Nobody would make loans to people that only had to endure 7 years of bad credit to wipe out hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.