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I agree, it falls under the heading of "I'd rather be lucky, than good" but to even get in the door, all of us have to have that minimum level of "good". Being able to time the economic cycle would be an asset for sure, but in the meantime, you spin the wheel and you take your chances.

Did you really earn it, or were you just at the right place, at the right time, with the right qualifications? You didn't have any impact on the economic cycle that produced the need for additional pilots at your airline. So, good job being qualified and interviewing well, I'm not sure that counts as "earning it", but it sounds like you're having a good career.

As for the "Then we will accept you as one of us." comment, how out of touch can you get?

630 TT CFI. Still working that hour-building job, hoping like everything I get the sub-20k/year 135 job flying a Caravan that I'll be interviewing for in a week. It would be a pay raise and some turbine time to put in the logbook. Have I disqualified myself as any source of intelligent thought yet?

If not....

Some (I believe, at this point, all) new entrants to aviation don't do it for the money. Or the job security. Or the schedule. I learned to fly airplanes because it was in my blood and for no other reason. If it's not in your blood, and the career has burned you out, I see no reason to stick with it. Regrets over wasted time will only get bigger the more time you waste. Find an IT job making six figures and be happy.

If the thought of working an IT job makes you sick to your stomach, maybe the sub-50k job at the regionals has something to it after all. The industry sucks, but you're doing the job that is somehow stuck in your blood to have to do. If the industry hasn't driven you away yet, that sort of thing must have some monetary value. Either that, or you're hanging on *hoping* things will change. Guess what. They don't.

Just my inexperienced thoughts. I'll crawl back to my part 91 / time-building forum section now.

Alpa and senior pilots decide the payscale for the newest pilot employees. The only people who care about junior pilots are junior pilots.

I need to ask, why do you think you, as a consumer, should be able to travel around the country/world for $100 round trip?

If that's what makes you feel better, by all means keep repeating it. You couldn't be more wrong though.

You're missing the disconnect. You get what you negotiate, and in the Fee for Departure arena the margins are razor thin. Because regionals are paid a set rate for the departure, what leverage are pilots negotiating against? The traditional GWxspeedxseats formula that provided a measure of revenue production (and pilot pay was based on taking a cut of that) doesn't exist. That makes apples to apples comparisons tough between regional and major airlines, but not impossible.

That's certainly nothing you don't already know, but I'd be interested to hear what value you present to the company at the bargaining table.

It used to be if pilots didn't like something, the answer was "next". But now, the available manpower being what it is in the industry, pilots have the ability to be shrewd at the bargaining table. To entertain the notion of pay cuts is crazy. There will be jobs for you in this industry based on retirements alone, and if a company can't afford to pay a living waged, then maybe the MEC's need to cull the heard and demand full pay to the past day.

Pilots eat their own. That's why we have regional airlines in the first place. This job shouldn't even exist. It exists because a bunch of senior pilots sat around the negotiating table one day and told management "We need the most senior pilots to earn $300,000 per year". Management said "ok we'll do that, but then we need the most junior pilots to earn $20,000 per year". The senior pilots at the table paused for a moment. About 30 seconds went by and one of the pilots said "We can live with that". All the other pilots at the table nodded their head in agreement.

I can only commend you for having personally been part of the movement to change the FAA's retirement age regulations. Did earning 5 more years, leave you with carpel tunnel from all the FAA hand shaking you must have been doing. I'm sure all us other lowly pilots owe you some major props for the sacrifices you made for the common good of the industry.

I'm not concerned with being ready for the big leagues. A more appropriate question would be; can I afford the pay cut involved with becoming accepted by you and your sky god brethren?

Agreed, How many mainliners look in the mirror for giving up SCOPE? I didn't get a chance to vote on that. Has to be the MOST concessionary and worst things to happen that we are still suffering for. Face it you were week and gave in to greed. Unwilling to help out your fellow mainline pilots that were furloughed. Question is how do you even face yourself in the mirror? Don't want to be handed a job but do want equal and fair treatment that has yet to be afforded to regional pilots.

Clueless!!!