AirlineApps: “Why Haven’t I Heard Anything”

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

Paying back student loans on a Bachelor's, $100k+ in flight training, and having a place to live? Yeah - $100k doesn't go too far. The average apartment rent is now over $20k/yr in the average US city. I sold my 7 year old car for what I paid for it NEW. They are more now.

Dang, what car was that?

 

[phill1174]

I think the only time I've gone 'high order' in the past 5 years or so is when a flight attendant walked off the jet and called in sick (which is fine, ordinarily), but because their pass riders wouldn't be going with us as we were both oversold and weight-restricted a few weeks back.

No, not making it up. Wish I was.

Now that takes a pair of cajones!

 

[///AMG]

I think realistically, $200k is the QOL nowadays that most associated with "sig figures"/$100k-ish when a lot of us were young. Maybe $250k with recent inflation.

 

[CoffeeIcePapers]

I think realistically, $200k is the QOL nowadays that most associated with "sig figures"/$100k-ish when a lot of us were young. Maybe $250k with recent inflation.

This is a strawman. I don't think anyone has argued otherwise. Do you want to compare a regional job in the mid 90s now, when adjusted for inflation? You had to pay for training/jobs to make like $15/hr and would qualify for food stamps. Equipment was harder to fly, the work rules were worse, and the pay was poverty level.

Now, an entry level regional FO position pays more than the median household income.

Yeah, a 23 year old making 100k can't afford a McMansion and a Porsche, but they don't have to get food stamps and eat Ramen, either.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

This is a strawman. I don't think anyone has argued otherwise. Do you want to compare a regional job in the mid 90s now, when adjusted for inflation? You had to pay for training/jobs to make like $15/hr and would qualify for food stamps. Equipment was harder to fly, the work rules were worse, and the pay was poverty level.

Now, an entry level regional FO position pays more than the median household income.

Yeah, a 23 year old making 100k can't afford a McMansion and a Porsche, but they don't have to get food stamps and eat Ramen, either.

Thank you. I know I'm old, but $13,000 to fly a 19 seat turboprop 6-10 legs a day with no autopilot doesn't seem all that long ago.

 

[derg]

Thank you. I know I'm old, but $13,000 to fly a 19 seat turboprop 6-10 legs a day with no autopilot doesn't seem all that long ago.

$14.4k my first year at Skyway. I was baller!

 

[SteveC]

$14.4k my first year at Skyway. I was baller!

My first full-time flying job was in 2004, flying twin Cessnas for $24K. 46 year old career changer with a wife and two step-sons.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

$14.4k my first year at Skyway. I was baller!

$7,000 the first six months at SkyWest.

The one and only year I cleared 6 figures there was right after upgrade and as it turns out it wasn’t worth the wear and tear.

 

[JDean3204]

people aren’t going to read these low salary dick measurements and think oh wow I’m lucky that’s not me. They’re going to read it and think “these losers really loved Top Gun wayyy too much!”

 

[Richman]

I think any discussion regarding people starting in the industry needs to include the reality that they shouldn’t count on doing this until 65. I’ll be shocked if I do.

People generally over-estimate their ability to compensate for bad working conditions. Sure, you can get away with it at 23. Not so much at 55.

I watched people fly the Pacific, which was generally held to be less hassle/timey wimey on the body than the Atlantic. They'd age 5 years for every one. I ran into a classmate about 3 years after we'd been hired, and he'd been flying the Pacific for 2, and I could hardly recognize him he'd aged so much.

OTOH, some people find the potential $$ generation and/or savings irresistible. I had another buddy do nothing but CDOs. "Oh, I sleep at home during the day", which was 100% horse excrement. He was out working his side gig, so functionally, the only sleep he got was what he got on the CDO, which was 5 hours at best. Or people with families where someone is up at 0600 because the other spouse worked, with a 5pm report. WB CA money, so completely unnecessary. People are burning themselves out and it's no wonder that the CB pops before 65.

The monetization of our life is a completely separate topic, but as Lou Manhiem once said: "That's the problem with money, Bud. It makes you do things you don't want to do. "

I was at a bug fair a year or so ago near the Cali Science Center and was chatting it up with a (probably very bored) officer from the USDA (because she only had brochures & was pumping the career vs. preserved butterflies and giant pet roaches) and and she told me - organic or not, if we need to spray produce on import, they are getting sprayed.

Now a days, I just buy the better looking of the bunches - trying to lean towards the organic - but knowing that everything is probably covered in DDT or the modern equivalent.

(I figure it's about $.30 each roughly.)

By and large, "organic" is a marketing term. Very loosey goosey rules around it. Unless you raised it/planted it and pulled it out of the ground yourself, there is zero way to verify it is what they say it is. Yea, there are "rules" and "certification", but when some of the stated benefits is "Market Access, Higher Prices and Profit Margins, Increased Consumer Trust and Competitive Advantage, and Eligibility for Grants and Incentives" (lifted right from the USDA website, BTW), yea, no motivation there to shortcut the rules, right?

For the most part, if you follow normal food preparation guidelines, you're going to be just fine.

People also need to cut out the doomscrolling. It. Is. Bad. For. You.

 

[///AMG]

This is a strawman. I don't think anyone has argued otherwise. Do you want to compare a regional job in the mid 90s now, when adjusted for inflation? You had to pay for training/jobs to make like $15/hr and would qualify for food stamps. Equipment was harder to fly, the work rules were worse, and the pay was poverty level.

Now, an entry level regional FO position pays more than the median household income.

Yeah, a 23 year old making 100k can't afford a McMansion and a Porsche, but they don't have to get food stamps and eat Ramen, either.

My comment was simply in regards to this persistent mentality in our society that "six figures" equates to some lavishly comfortable lifestyle. Fully agree that is almost entirely due to inflation over the last couple decades. It was not commentary about regional life then, or now. But on that subject, I'd agree with you that regional airline FO compensation is far better than it was even 15 years ago. So is mainline/legacy/major year 1 pay.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

people aren’t going to read these low salary dick measurements and think oh wow I’m lucky that’s not me. They’re going to read it and think “these losers really loved Top Gun wayyy too much!”

I mean, I consider myself quite lucky that I actually do love flying airplanes and get to continue to do so.

 

[drunkenbeagle]

This is a strawman. I don't think anyone has argued otherwise. Do you want to compare a regional job in the mid 90s now, when adjusted for inflation? You had to pay for training/jobs to make like $15/hr and would qualify for food stamps. Equipment was harder to fly, the work rules were worse, and the pay was poverty level.

I also paid $31/hour for the Cessna I learned to fly in back then. I was making $18/hour part-time at my college job. A Cessna is $206/hour now. I don't know many college students making $120/hour at their side jobs that would be comparable now.

What I have seen change is that pilots are working 5-10 years to save enough to become CFIs, or their parents are paying for all of it during/after college.