Mainline- Airline Pilot Demand

BobDDuck said:
but there was a lot of doubt and bitterness I had to get through in the meantime.
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This is seriously spot on. If the timing of when you were born or got into flying isn't perfect then managing the doubt and bitterness is a large component of not throwing in the towel before your time comes.

Derg said:
I'd rather be junior working the weekends at Hawaiian than super senior at any regional. Believe it.
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No offense but who wouldn't? The reality is more along the lines of would you rather be senior at a regional living in base or would you rather commute to a crash pad in Punta Gorda Fl to fly at Allegient or commute to JFK to be an fo for decades at JetBlue.
 
Hootie said:
This is seriously spot on. If the timing of when you were born or got into flying isn't perfect then managing the doubt and bitterness is a large component of not throwing in the towel before your time comes.



No offense but who wouldn't? The reality is more along the lines of would you rather be senior at a regional living in base or would you rather commute to a crash pad in Punta Gorda Fl to fly at Allegient or commute to JFK to be an fo for decades at JetBlue.
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That's why being able/willing to move is HUGE for QOL. I live and am based in DEN, which is awesome. I grew up here, and spent many years trying to get back. My seniority is pretty good, I'm a line holder and usually get what I want with my bids. I spend every moment of my free time in the mountains. But I am absolutely not going to commute from here if it involves an east coast base.

My fiancé understands that my career plans are to get the hell out of my regional ASAP, and move wherever if necessary. Regionals are a dead end, period. Almost all the lifers I come across are miserable and working their asses off, yet still brag about how they (barely) break six figures. All I can figure is that they either have some skeletons in the closet or a selfish significant other that is unwilling to move.
 
GypsyPilot said:
That's why being able/willing to move is HUGE for QOL. I live and am based in DEN, which is awesome. I grew up here, and spent many years trying to get back. My seniority is pretty good, I'm a line holder and usually get what I want with my bids. I spend every moment of my free time in the mountains. But I am absolutely not going to commute from here if it involves an east coast base. My fiancé understands that my career plans are to get the hell out of my regional ASAP, and move wherever if necessary. Regionals are a dead end, period. Almost all the lifers I come across are miserable and working their asses off, yet still brag about how they (barely) break six figures. All I can figure is that they either have some skeletons in the closet or a selfish significant other that is unwilling to move.
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Or...simply...

Lazy.
 
Oh God, bull shizz, more shizz, and Piled high in shizz.

I say this and I have a degree. 10 weeks at Fort Bragg made my testicle drop though. O_o
 
The way things are shaking out, unless you're tail end Charlie, you likely won't be "an FO for decades" at JetBlue despite what those guys on the other forums say. RIGHT NOW (subject to change of course), guys hired 3-4 years ago are upgrading. I went from "new guy" to #55 in my base/equipment in less than a year. I've got better relative seniority now than I did as a JFK CA on the -200 at Pinnacle. I get more days off, most of my trips are commutable on both ends and I'm gonna fall JUST shy of what I made my last year as a CA at 9E this year. Next year I'll surpass that and likely end the year as a non-commuter. So, yeah. No thanks for staying at a regional. My ex-regional, btw, went from nice new contract to downgrading a LOT of CAs in just a couple of years. More downgrades to come from what I hear. Some was poor management. Some was the mainline carrier we flew for playing hardball with the finances. When a regional plays chicken with the people who sell the tickets, they're gonna lose every time.

I agree money isn't everything, and I can't begrudge guys that are comfortable at a regional for staying the. BUT, if/when they wind up forced to take pay cuts, downgraded or unemployed because a new flavor of the month underbid them for flying, they really shouldn't be surprised.
 
dasleben said:
Not to be a pain, but I'll do that as a first year FO at a "major ACMI." I have no illusions that we're not quite up to DAL/UAL/FDX/UPS par, either. $70k in 121 post-regionals is okay cash.
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Which is interesting, because this pay check doesn't match this cargo either. How does the Internet feel about this? Different? Same?
 
kellwolf said:
The way things are shaking out, unless you're tail end Charlie, you likely won't be "an FO for decades" at JetBlue despite what those guys on the other forums say. RIGHT NOW (subject to change of course), guys hired 3-4 years ago are upgrading. I went from "new guy" to #55 in my base/equipment in less than a year. I've got better relative seniority now than I did as a JFK CA on the -200 at Pinnacle. I get more days off, most of my trips are commutable on both ends and I'm gonna fall JUST shy of what I made my last year as a CA at 9E this year. Next year I'll surpass that and likely end the year as a non-commuter. So, yeah. No thanks for staying at a regional. My ex-regional, btw, went from nice new contract to downgrading a LOT of CAs in just a couple of years. More downgrades to come from what I hear. Some was poor management. Some was the mainline carrier we flew for playing hardball with the finances. When a regional plays chicken with the people who sell the tickets, they're gonna lose every time.

I agree money isn't everything, and I can't begrudge guys that are comfortable at a regional for staying the. BUT, if/when they wind up forced to take pay cuts, downgraded or unemployed because a new flavor of the month underbid them for flying, they really shouldn't be surprised.
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And most of us can't even get an interview...
 
Those of you that think you can make a career at a commuter need to tread lightly and carefully. My father was at MVA/Air Wisconsin back in the 1970s-80s and still has friends there. It was one of the best, if not the best commuter to work for back in the day. He was making in the late 1980s what guys today make flying 50 seat RJs and he was in a 50 seat TBP(F.27) at 12 year pay.

There was a lot of politics and other BS involved, but he left to make high teen money at Braniff 2 with two children and move across the country. That wound up with 2 more bankruptcies, and another merger that wound up being the best worst blessing ever (Morris/SWA).

His retirement was last summer (8/12) he had many reasons for pulling the plug early, but the best was "I hate working for a living, it is time to quit"

Sorry I have drifted off what I wanted to say, had he stayed at ARW, he would still be working and miserable with a commute from Wisconsin or Illinois to PHL. He couldn't even handle MCI-MDW anymore so he retired because he could.
 
arkflyr said:
Those of you that think you can make a career at a commuter need to tread lightly and carefully. My father was at MVA/Air Wisconsin back in the 1970s-80s and still has friends there. It was one of the best, if not the best commuter to work for back in the day. He was making in the late 1980s what guys today make flying 50 seat RJs and he was in a 50 seat TBP(F.27) at 12 year pay.

There was a lot of politics and other BS involved, but he left to make high teen money at Braniff 2 with two children and move across the country. That wound up with 2 more bankruptcies, and another merger that wound up being the best worst blessing ever (Morris/SWA).

His retirement was last summer (8/12) he had many reasons for pulling the plug early, but the best was "I hate working for a living, it is time to quit"

Sorry I have drifted off what I wanted to say, had he stayed at ARW, he would still be working and miserable with a commute from Wisconsin or Illinois to PHL. He couldn't even handle MCI-MDW anymore so he retired because he could.
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A lot of people quit but there are still a few lifers. You never know if you'll become one. There are a ton of good guys at every commuter with degrees with no accidents/incidents/DUIs/skeletons that haven't been able to move on despite applying multiple times. No call = no chance for interview.

FWIW I was hired at AWAC in 2005 and despite losing the 18 (?) 146's going from 88 planes to 70 I upgraded in 30 months. A TON of CAs left in that time frame.
 
There are a bunch of people there that are good friends and family! I was just trying to say that you will never know until you try!
 
kellwolf said:
you likely won't be "an FO for decades" at JetBlue despite what those guys on the other forums say.
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I probably shouldn't have been specific in my post. Allegiant and Jetblue are both fine places that I would be happy to work at. But when your tafb is less than 1200 hours a year and you drive to work it's really hard to commute to jfk or some 20 crew fly by night domicile in Florida for the same amount of money. As for myself I'd be willing to go anywhere that has a domicile I could live in and has some stability. But if history is any guide airline stability is short term at best. Just a little bit of age 70 mixed with some more mainline outsourcing of narrow bodies and the govt "opening up the skies" to lower consumer costs and there won't be anything left of that stable major airline job.
 
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