BH - company is NOT offering a relocation incentive when they have in the following cases in the past for ALL PILOTS who are displaced (emphasis is mine)

RJ - originally the company wasn't going to offer ANYONE relocation incentive and as of 8pm last night we were able to get 2 SPOTS (again emphasis mine)

Anyone that thinks the company will do the right thing and take care of the pilots and their family's that are getting displaced will probably be disappointed. The new SGU motto is money over people. They are hoping that everyone will transfer out and save them some cash. Every time they have a chance to do the right thing, they somehow manage to show how much they care about money vs their employees.

@Disillusioned

I cant tell if you're disappointed or surprised? I think you've been in this regional game longer than me, but every time I've seen a situation come up where a company could do the right thing they almost never do. From an economics standpoint you're asking them to spend more money so see it from their eyes.... why would they? The regionals have always operated on a who can do it cheaper model and still make acceptable profits, sadly us pilots are not in the drivers seat in regards to bargaining for better pay. We've been able to cover all the attrition with new hires and it honestly doesn't appear to be swinging the other direction anytime soon. If IAH closes that will just help the staffing model that much more and we already know that we have flying not being renewed. I don't see us having a leg to bargain for raises due to staffing anytime soon. If you want a pay raise you'll have to leave and go somewhere else, otherwise accept the mess were in and deal with it. I hate that this is the case just as much as anyone else, but I'm over getting bent out of shape about it.

Disappointed but not surprised. When I was applying, I waited until I could get the 1,000 hours because I really wanted SW. My friends that went to other regionals told me horror stories of getting extended into a day off after not being used during their reserve days and general mistreatment. I feel our QOL is under constant attack here and the boiling water has been increased so gradual that people don't understand how much we have lost over the years.

I really had planned on just staying at SW. Didn't care if I upgraded fast since I wanted to just be around to see my kids grow up. But after I realized that SW places just little value on seniority and my QOL didn't really increase as my seniority got higher, I started working hard to get out. I figure if I am going to have to work 16 days a month in the top 1/3 of my domicile, I may as well be making more money at a major doing it. If we had half the protection as our union sister company, they wouldn't be able to keep up with attrition. As it stands right now, we take on all this extra flying from our partners at a premium, and force our pilot group to fly 95+ hour lines each month at straight pay. Don't let the seniority lists fool you. I have already proven time and time again that it is filled with cadets and other pilots that are not on-site. I think they do this to give a false sense of insecurity to our pilot group and that they we have no negotiating leverage because they are filling classes to keep up with attrition.

Most of my posts are just to let those that are looking here to know what they are in for. I didn't realize the value of representation when I was trying to hard to get my hours to be hired at SW. You are 100% correct in things not getting any better as long as we are filling classes. When you ask why would they spend more money than they need to, I am just asking them to honor the agreements they made with their pilot group. It should be very apparent to everyone how little power SAPA has to help our group. And as the attrition increases, there will be even less people to help remind those coming in of what handshake agreements and promises were made by the company. But eventually their will be a tipping point where their choices to make more money will be lost in the lack of goodwill with the pilot group. Hopefully I will not be around to witness that disappointment firsthand.

Nothing new about that, began when RR was forced out as COO.

Thanks for the reply Disillusioned I was just wondering what your stance was since you've been a long time poster on here.

Question for you Cruz. Since you have had experience at other regionals, is SW as bad as some think? I realize that even with all the crap we put up with that we are still better off than some, and maybe that is what is the driving force is behind us getting all the new hires?

I know that most out there are just trying to build hours and experience at a regional until they can move on. And maybe all this is just to give incentive to those that are comfortable to move on. They say that regionals should never be a career destination but I fought that wisdom for as long as I could. Until ALL regionals are on the same page and not whipsawing each other, I'm afraid not much will change.

For sure. I came here with the expectation that I may not move on, even though other regionals allege to be able to offer a faster upgrade. A lot of new hires are mistakenly assuming that they will move on to Delta or United after two years after being hired at a regional just because of Joe Bob who supposedly did as a low time FO and didn't upgrade, but that is seldom the rule, more so the exception, and why not go to a regional like SkyWest which will most likely weather the coming storm fairly well as compared to regionals like Envoy or Republic which are already feeling the gust front?

There is no comparing SkyWest to my time at Silver just two different airlines, as far as my short time at Horizon it was about the same with a slight edge to Horizon because of how much better the compensation was. Looking at what's going on now at Horizon I think SkyWest is the better option. Having a Union doesn't make everything perfect but it does give the pilot group a little more leverage to fight for and enforce contract issues. The whole IAH closing issues you brought up would be handled vastly different if we had a union. SGU can escape all this by passing just enough along to keep us from unionizing and we buy off on it. The biggest complaint you'll get from people at SkyWest for more than say 5 years or so is I don't want a percent of my pay going to a union to waste on nothing. Usually these guys I hear that from are senior and have never had to deal with issues where a union could help them. We can debate unions all day for their positive and negatives cause both sides aren't necessarily wrong, but I'd prefer one for the just in case moment I need it. YMMV

There has been a push in the past for unionized majors to only hire regional pilots that came from unionized shops. Personally, I would support this. If you want to work for a major that is part of a union, you should work for a regional that supports a union.

The greatest threat to unionized pilots in non-unionized pilots.

That's what I find so funny/frustrating. If any SW pilot would take a look at what has been taken away from us by SGU with a simple pen stroke, they would realize how much they were getting for that small percentage. Block vs credit, relocation incentives, pay rates for new planes, ect... As it stands now, SGU can just do whatever they want and change our QOL overnight. Servers getting bogged down with everyone trying to improve their schedule the night of the 24th? Just write a script that denies any requests due to lack of reserves. Agree to reserve improvements in a pay package that may cost some money to implement? Just change management and say that it was the old guy that agreed to that and you are not going to do it anymore. Get on the wrong side of your CP and he spends tons of money and resources to get you fired? It's okay as long as you have the money to take the company to court, you will get your job back plus back pay/lawyers fees. If you were part of a union, you wouldn't be paying the lawyers out of pocket. By trying to save 1.5-2%, SW pilots are losing way more than that each year. I bet you could pay your union fees for the year with one fatigue call that is denied.

I wonder how much something like this would hurt SW recruiting efforts? I think you would have to have some type of grandfather policy to those that are currently at a regional without a union. I know it would have made a difference for me in which place I went to work for if that was the case. Didn't United do something like this with the ALPA seminars not to long ago? Something like this would be way more beneficial than a flow IMO. That and ALL regionals agreeing to not undercut each other.