In-house Delta Job Fair, October 20/21 2017

Cloud Surfer said:
Boobies

In all seriousness, there are just not enough mainline jobs and too many pilots still out there. I doubt that this will change because there are still pilots entering the industry and not every carrier's hiring needs will be equal at any given year. It will always be competitive.
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Thats just it. Not every regional pilot will get a job at the mainline. There just aren't enough jobs at that level for everyone. The problem is that regionals sold, and low time guys bought the lie that "Work for us a few years and you're guaranteed a job at the mainline." It's just not true.
 
Cptnchia said:
Thats just it. Not every regional pilot will get a job at the mainline. There just aren't enough jobs at that level for everyone. The problem is that regionals sold, and low time guys bought the lie that "Work for us a few years and you're guaranteed a job at the mainline." It's just not true.
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Yup, I agree. The good news is that year twenty captain pay is really nice even at the regionals, so if assuming the worst and we regional upstarts become stuck, we can still retire comfortably. We should just be content with what we have and wisely save what we make, we can't go wrong. Problem is some of us have five kids and feel the need to waste the paycheck on superficial objects--for those guys, they're in a dilemma. I'm happy just to fly for a living.
 
Cloud Surfer said:
Yup, I agree. The good news is that year twenty captain pay is really nice even at the regionals, so if assuming the worst and we regional upstarts become stuck, we can still retire comfortably. We should just be content with what we have and save what we make, we can't go wrong. I'm happy just to fly for a living.
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I would heavily suggest AGAINST the notion/idea that a regional will be around for your retirement.

By defintion, a regional relies on contract work from mainline carriers. Just ask Comair, ACA, RegionsAir, Big Sky, Chicago Express, etc.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
I would heavily suggest AGAINST the notion/idea that a regional will be around for your retirement.

By defintion, a regional relies on contract work from mainline carriers. Just ask Comair, ACA, RegionsAir, Big Sky, Chicago Express, etc.
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Yes, I know. Which is why I chose SkyWest even over regional carriers that have historically struggled and treated their pilots like dirt and paid more to start out. If it doesn't work out, I'll deal with it then. I still want to get out, but it's not like any of us have control over our fate, we just do what we can and sometimes that isn't good enough or is.
 
Cptnchia said:
No ones forcing anyone to do the same job for less pay. Everyone ever hired by a regional knew the pay was way less. If no one took the job, then regionals wouldn't exist and there'd be more pilots flying for mainline carriers.
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Uh, there's a judge from Bankruptcy Court on the phone...he'd like to speak to you...

As to the other topics....at least these days you don't need to be under 30 and military to get hired. Take a look at the hiring stats prior to the 1980s (1967-68 excepted), and you'll see a pretty, um, singular demographic. If you were outside of that, you weren't working for a "trunk line"...

Look, guys (and gals) have been self-immolating in this industry for ages now. This is not anything new. All the Internet does is make the process quicker and more public. I used to hear these exact same complaints in the 80s. And the 90s. And the 00s (what little hiring there was).
 
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Skåning said:
Do it!
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Result is out, I'm officially a bypasser. Bottom plug CA in SFO is junior to me. :aghast:

I'll be 10 yrs flying for the airlines as of next month, never touched a left seat and this was my first chance. As much as I want to, the current family situation plus the transcon commute to reserve. :(

I think the worst part is seeing the 50ish (or more) upgrades this year, none were in NYC. And several NYC FOs senior to me who took the upgrade had to take it in SFO. That means at some point they are going to want to return as a NYC Captain. With the base capped, the only movement into the base as a CA is when someone retires or bids out west on purpose. This bid award had just one NY CA bid SFO, and that position was filled by a fairly senior already-CA from SFO. So for a NYC CA slot, I'd have to not only wait for any current SF or LA CA that wants NYC, but also all the FOs above me who also want NYC as a Captain. True, many don't want NYC CA for a reserve position and will pass that opportunity, but even then I still don't see me holding NYC Captain for a looooong time.

We still have one more CA bid for 6 upgrades this year, and then the upgrades for next year (5 new planes + 6 CA retirements). We have the contract coming out on Oct 29th and the SLI should be done by about mid-2018. Hopefully they'll have news for us in the NYC base early or mid 2018. I can only guess but given its current size I think it either has to expand in size (increase base cap) in order to get economic justification, or just outright close. No one knows. I think for now I'd bid SFO CA if I could hold a line. Most of the EWR/JFK overnights tend to go junior, so I can bid those kinds of trips and go home for the night every time I have those. The commute would suck, but at least I could score some home overnights. But the problem of upgrading into a line is that SFO CA line awards are unpredictable from one month to another. Some months, there may be 20+ involuntary reserves. The next, just 12 involuntary reserves. Some month as high as 25-30, others as low as 11-12. It'd hard to predict. The "safest" thing would be to wait until there are at least 20-25 CAs below. Or maybe bid right when one can hold a reserve schedule for 6 months and a regular line for about 6 months (~15 CAs below in base or so)? I don't know.

/end rant
 
Cptnchia said:
Are you saying a BK judge can compel you to not quit if after wages are cut, you no longer find the work financially feasible?
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Depends on how squishy your definition of "forced" is. "Here is a 40% pay cut and we're terminating your pension, here's some new work rules that suck, and oh, by the way, the rest of the industry is in the crapper, so it's this or Walmart".

I'd say in some circumstances, that counts as "forced".
 
Richman said:
Depends on how squishy your definition of "forced" is. "Here is a 40% pay cut and we're terminating your pension, here's some new work rules that suck, and oh, by the way, the rest of the industry is in the crapper, so it's this or Walmart".

I'd say in some circumstances, that counts as "forced".
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Hey, I was there. Took the 100% pay cut for 4 1/2 years. But this comment was in regards to regional pay, not mainline. They already had suck wages. It's not like the regional ran a bait and switch with the pay scale to get them in the door.
 
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