Personally, I can’t wait to hear “45%” and “better than pre 2017 regional rates” again!

 

You keep talking like that, someone will wash your mouth out with soap.

 

“Better than my Regional”

 

So to the OP, per the numbers here (old contract $30,000 first year w/ a 45% increase) you’ll see $43,500. Give or take a few thousand. Not better than your regional.

Spirit pilots of the last decade have subsidized the company’s growth with low wages and will continue to do so. The Pilot’s take on personal debt, so that the airline can continue to grow and hopefully be the “next Southwest” one day.

 

You want pilots that don't agree with "better than my regional": pay them better than the regional INCLUDING year 1. If we want a better contract we need to make sure the people we hire want it too.

 

Agree entirely. There are REGIONALS that have first year pay of $50 an hour that STILL have to give bonuses to get quality applicants. But that’s not even the point I was trying to make.

What does it do to pilot unity when you hold first year wages hostage to increased wages to people making far more? What are you telling junior people who may want to join you?

That your fellow pilots VALUE YOU LESS THAN MANAGEMENT DOES.
That’s what you are telling them. And then you wonder why there isn’t unity in the pilot group? Why it’s every
Man/woman for him or herself?

Look, the RLA stacks the cards against the union badly enough without the pilot group themselves doing things to screw over pilot unity.

 

I don’t follow the logic of comparing first year pay between Spirit and regional airlines. Last I checked, regionals don’t pay $107 second year.

First year pay is tough, sure. But if you planned ahead as a regional CA by paying off all your debt and saving up an emergency fund you’ll be fine. I have a hunch the guys complaining about first year pay are still debt slaves who never made an attempt to get out.

 

Sure, rationalize being a highly skilled professional with years of experience and going back to less than entry level wages. Everyone has paid their dues by the time they arrive at Spirit. No need to take that kick in the nuts for your employer or be put in that position by your peers.

 

I could make the same argument the other way....”how much should a senior airline pilot with 20+ years experience sacrifice in wages, when approaching retirement, so that a new hire can get double the raise of those hired 2 years before him.” Should the senior pilot have saved more for retirement so that the pay decrease wouldn’t be an issue? Could I make the same argument of the new hire and saving?
How much less would you take an hour to increase first year pay?? Serious question because it would not be increased more, without a cut somewhere. Or should the pilot group refuse to sign any contract that doesn’t have higher first year pay? Should on property pilots draw a line to raise first year pay, because in sure the recruiting department would love that as well.

Stand by what I said, first year pay isn’t close to perfect but highly doable and I know this because most all of us did it at $38!

If you can’t swing it, no problem, but don’t expect the pilot group at large to take less to supplement hiring and growth.

You can reply with your standard hysteria and hyperbole about how nobody cares etc....

 

Naw. More fun to just wait and watch the look on your faces when the NMB says since the pilots group seems to think $57 an hour for new hire pilots is appropriate, vs 92-90 for legacies, the pilots union themselves have defined themselves as only being worth 63% of the legacy A320 pay scale.

Based on the United A320 payscale, that would top one of your 12 year captains out at $178 an hour.

Don’t bet your management won’t some day make that argument. Or that that argument won’t be made by the other pilot group if there is someday a SLI.

Bad karma has a way of biting people in the butt eventually.