Bzzt is correct. First the carrot to those on property to accept this TA and those applying willing to take job for less with the prospect of someday flowing to AA. The pilots fail to realize that there are only two things you can depend on 100% in your life, they are TAXES and DEATH. Anything else is a gamble and if the gamble does not work out, and you are stuck how low will you be willing to go next time around.

What I don't understand is why a new hire would be enticed by flow. At 30 a month with a 2800 pilot airline, it would take nearly 8 years to flow to AA.

Flow through is a scam designed to slow the flow of regional pilots to the major airlines, not quicken it.

Management is one step ahead of you guys on this, think about this critically for a minute.

Regional airlines that do not have any flow through agreements arranged with major airlines will lose pilots the quickest. Major airlines will turn to these carriers first as to not upset the balance with their regional partners they have an agreement with.

Flow through has never worked properly and never will. Unless the major airline is handing out seniority numbers today, its just another carrot to keep you inline. Ask your union to take flow through out of your next contract and exchange it for something else and see what happens.

I agree, at 30 a month it is a management control of exodus. company benefits the most while a few pilots benefit to flow, but you will do it at a frozen/capped pay. it will take years to flow and make up the lose in income, 4th year cap, takes you 6 years to flow, takes another 3 years maybe to break even from the loses at AE and start paying off any debts. looking at least 9 years to save a dime.

just an opinion

Absolutely, why would AA want to flow an Eagle pilot or hire a PSA pilot? It creates a training cycle. Hiring from another regional will most likely not do that unless that pilot flies under the American Eagle brand.

Mainline management will protect their regional feed and delay the flow as long as possible. They are already metering Eagle and delaying PSA interviews until the last possible moment (they could still violate the agreement)

Absolutely, the smart play is to hire from pools outside of what American Airlines owns. It makes zero sense to destroy your own wholly owned regional airline. That is not in the best interests of American Airlines or their shareholders- and let's face it- that's why a company does what it does, to answer to share holders. It makes a lot more sense to destroy your competitions regional airline by hiring their talent away.

I'm pretty sure I'm right on this, flow through and shiny jets are 2 things you should not be taking any concessions on. They are both promises of things that may or may not ever happen.

8 years is a heck of a lot shorter than most guys have been at Eagle. And the 8 years is if no one stays at Eagle and no one gets hired elsewhere. We've lost 120+ pilots since January 1.

How many were flow throughs vs. junior FOs jumping ship?

The same argument can be made that wholly owneds with a flow will be targeted by the remaining legacies so as to cripple the feed of their competition. I wouldn't be surprised if this tactic is employed once staffing gets truly bad at regionals.

In regards to the flow itself I consider it more of a last resort parachute. If I can't get hired somewhere else by the time my flow is called at least I know eventually I'll be somewhere I want to be. It's a safety net, not a career plan.

Mainlines will poach each other's regional pilots across the industry. It will be awash. What will happen at the carriers with flow throughs is that it will be stopped or severely restricted.