Yeah, it is.

Again, nobody put a gun to their heads and siad, "WORK FOR XXX AIRLINES AND LIVE OUT OF BASE, THAT WAY YOU HAVE TO COMMUTE AND SLEEP IN THE CREW ROOM, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

Everything is a choice.

So do I and that is why I CHOOSE not to start a real family (ie. Kids, dog, and a house payment) until I am able to choose to get a better job. Right now, I choose to live this way, and eventually, I will choose to have a family when I have a better wage and work schedule.

I find the logic behind this type of advocacy to be interesting. You are saying that our free society is "imperfect" (when compared to the "perfect" world of freedom that I describe). As a solution for this, we need to make our world EVEN MORE imperfect by taking away more freedoms. As a reasonable person can infer, this will only lead to people complaining that our world is even more imperfect, thus leading to more freedoms being taken away and the slippery slope will continue until we are in a world as described by Carl Marx / Stalin. If this is what you picture as being ideal for this country, then maybe you should consider a different society.

The nice thing about a 100% free society (to use your "perfect world" analogy) is that the only things you have to do (and are ultimately responsible for) are what you choose to do. That, is the perfect world I live in. A world of Free-Will!

What does my pay have to do with crash pads? I've never been at a crash pad... ever. I wouldn't, either. I don't prefer to live that way, and airline flying is not worth just existing to me.

My pay was $19.25/hr, multiplied by however many hours I credited. I commuted.

The pay isn't specifically the issue for crash pads. Everybody knows the pay going in, just like I did. If the situation for me was live in a crash pad or find a new job, I'd find a new job.

Rest rules are certainly something the government can, and must do. I don't follow your thought how that is connected to pay in any way.

The pay just might go up if some people refused the job. No matter how much pilots complain, they'll keep lining up for low pay and crash pads.

-Every applicant for any airline asks the question: Are you willing to relocate??
-When you start with an airline, regional or major, you know how much your are making.
-When you apply with an airline, you know what bases they have..

The choice to commute/having a crashpad is the pilots RESPONSIBILITY. Not the airlines, not the government.

I don't have any sympathy for somebody who has to support a family/kids/wife and commutes, and then complains about there situation. That is there personal choice to live out of base. If somebody had the great idea to have a huge mortgage, wife, kids, loans, and work for a crappy paying regional, and then decides to commute, well that is just a stupid life decision. The government or airlines should not have to pay for one's poor life decisions.
I agree with Fly Boy knight

Who is John Galt? ;)

Amen sir. I believe that down to my bones. Capitilism does work! It may suk initially, but it will take it's course eventually. Chrysler survived the great depression but not this recent recession. Why because there was less economic movement or less sales? Hell no! It's cause there are too many unions and awful management. I think pilot unions are silly as well. If you run the company right, people will work for you. If you don't, people will leave. Free market econemy!

Tony, if you had passed upgrade, were you planning on moving you and your family up to FAT? Were you planning on living in the crew room with some of the other commuters or were you planning on staying at hotels at 60-70 a night right at the airport?
Not trying to pick on you, but I am curious, how are the rest rules and fatigue policies at Arik? Does the company provide housing when you commute in from the US?

For those without families and have "NO SYMPATHY" for us commuters... JUST SHUT UP, all of us have our reasons to commute to our AWESOME PAY at the regionals. I personally commute to FAT from MCO, it sucks but I am fine with it, I tried the living in base thing for 2 years but it was a family choice and I was more willing to commute than have my wife be unhappy in FAT.

For me I would be happy if I could use the company (lodgeX) to buy a hotel room in base before a trip at the Airline Company RATE, (NOT THE LEISURE RATE) and just have it payroll deducted or pay it myself at the hotel. Or what would be nice would be the airline pay for a certain number of nights since they dont have to pay for a parking pass for that employee or at times a SIDA badge. Plus each base SHOULD have a sleep, dark room, for those awesome 3 plus hr sits (have had 5 hours once).

Hopper,


It's not about your choice to commute. It is about some wanting the government to pay for it.

I can only speak for myself but, I will not "JUST SHUT UP" when people are asking for the taxpayers to subsidize their life choices.

So I guess you believe CORRUPTION in this awesome free market economy is just part of its greatness. Seriously you have NO IDEA what this industry is like as a CFI (from your profile). So why does SWA have a pilot union? I guess its just a waste of their time and money, because the company CARES and its all about being a "FAMILY". How about United/Continental? You may not agree with unions, but in the airline industry, and many FREE market economy companies, ITS ALL ABOUT PROFITS, not about how to treat its employees like a family. Labor at times needs some sort "protection", but the downside can be that the union rep gets TOO BIG, and can become part of the problem at the same time (ALPA). Yea I guess there is a thing about seniority at airlines, and pretty much LOCKS those that are senior to move to another airline to just start over when things start to get bad or hurts their QOL.

I by no means think the govt should help subsidize pilots that commute.. Its the job of the govt to make laws to govern how the airlines operate. But the airlines need to be corporately responsible for the work rules they create and the results of them causing those to commute.