MMTO

BobDDuck said:
I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer but flying is flying is flying, especially once the legs get over 30 minutes long. You sit. You look out the window. You talk. You read (approved stuff, of course). You eat. You look out the window. The MidPac looks about the same as the North Atlantic from 36,000 feet. And flying over the Rockies is pretty similar to flying over the Alps. Going to the same few places within a 10 block radius of your hotel in AMS is pretty much the same as walking to the 10 places in Chicago (other than the schmoke and pancake of course). There are 5% asshats on every fleet type, just as there are 15% of guys you try to buddy bid with. Don't get me wrong. Change is good some times, especially when you find your job life getting stale. That's the benefit of ending up at a carrier that has multiple fleet types. However, I think most of us find way more satisfaction with finding change in our personal lives than from flying a different type of plane.
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My issues with the the subject material, is that in this industry you spend your whole time waiting to be king. At the regional level, you're chomping on the bit to upgrade and GTFO. At mainline, you're waiting and hoping to be king, because it's probably at least 8-10 year wait time. And you want the pay increase, but also so that you're finally the boss, and no longer a gear swinging underling.

So why someone would take a step backwards, for a plane? I'm unsure. I'm all about bidding to another plane to keep things fresh if you can hold it. Be it in your same rank structure, or bid up. From FO to Captain, but to bid a plane and bid down from Captain to FO. Just seems dumb to me.
 
Maximillian_Jenius said:
So why someone would take a step backwards, for a plane? I'm unsure. I'm all about bidding to another plane to keep things fresh if you can hold it. Be it in your same rank structure, or bid up. From FO to Captain, but to bid a plane and bid down from Captain to FO. Just seems dumb to me.
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What part of better Quality of Life don't you get? As an FO on the 787 he'll get a better schedule, more days off, destinations that evidently he prefers...

Being "King" is a bit of an overstatement. Evidently being "KING" of a 737 isn't all that it seems. I can tell you being "KING" on the RJ (aside from the better paycheck) was a major PITA.
 
Baronman said:
What part of better Quality of Life don't you get? As an FO on the 787 he'll get a better schedule, more days off, destinations that evidently he prefers...

Being "King" is a bit of an overstatement. Evidently being "KING" of a 737 isn't all that it seems. I can tell you being "KING" on the RJ (aside from the better paycheck) was a major PITA.
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Actually, better QOL on the 787 is all speculative. Unless you can confirm. But he was a 737 captain for fourteen years. Pretty sure he was probably had a good bidding number in base. He could have also bid reserve and flown maybe one or two trips a month. Or maybe not worked in 2-3 months, to improve his QOL.

Lots of variables here
 
I dont know. Even if they paid me a million dollars to fly to the same places all the time I would take a pay cut to go see other places. Thats just me though.
 
Maximillian_Jenius said:
My issues with the the subject material, is that in this industry you spend your whole time waiting to be king. At the regional level, you're chomping on the bit to upgrade and GTFO. At mainline, you're waiting and hoping to be king, because it's probably at least 8-10 year wait time. And you want the pay increase, but also so that you're finally the boss, and no longer a gear swinging underling.

So why someone would take a step backwards, for a plane? I'm unsure. I'm all about bidding to another plane to keep things fresh if you can hold it. Be it in your same rank structure, or bid up. From FO to Captain, but to bid a plane and bid down from Captain to FO. Just seems dumb to me.
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No one is waiting for or trying to be king of anything in all reality, because there is no such pinnacle in aviation. There is always more and/or always different and none of us have some or all of the control that we think/wish we had either. And when reaching certain goals and holding them for a time, some people want more or different, and that's perfectly okay. It may be because you haven't been there/done that, that you can't imagine his actions/decision. Several posters have tried to give some good examples of why he may have made his decision and I would bet, that in some of what has already been stated, are some of the reasons he chose to change his status and airframe. It is his life and his choice and it doesn't need to make sense to others or be justified to anyone, in truth. If this makes him happy, and it's what he wants, sobeit. What some may perceive as a step backwards is actually a new adventure and a step forwards to others. It's all in the perspective. We only get one ride, best to try and take the ride where we want to and on our own terms as much as possible.
 
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Derg said:
Airlines and planes can be "tribal".

Here's an example, on the ER we were all about the layover. It was a fun aircraft, solid, reliable and flew to a lot of good places. Didn't overthink the system or the flight planning, just came to work to do the job and get to the layover. What time is happy hour, where we gonna go eat, etc.

On the 330, there are a few people that think Pope Benedict canonized them to fly the holy greatness that is the 330. And how dispatch does everything wrong, because the box says "X" and the previous method of was way better and I'm going to call and have this changed and that changed. You'll see groups of 330 pilots sitting around the hotel bar in AMS talking… shop and about the airplane. Why? I have no idea because I probably just listened to six hours of you talking about the "-10" or how it was preposterous that Republic pilots got to fly the wide bodies when everyone knows their career potential was the "-9". Some other man's war I don't involve myself with as it's over. Slight cultural shock because some guys started to believe their own hype because there was very little 'crossbreeding' on the 330 so I sometimes find myself whistling "let it go" from Frozen.

Change is the only constant in the airline business and you are owed nothing.

Like one check airmen I flew with literally has a hard on about harshing on the 777. A plane he's never flown, but he just took strange interest in declaring how superior the 330 is compared to that "rust bucket". Ok, it's an airplane, who cares. So it became comical because we'd start messing with him with things like "Oh, I saw a 777 guy at the bar, he was drunk on O'Douls, what a loser!" because he just… wouldn't… let… go…. It's an airplane. We're all numbered one through eleven thousand. We have various bases which are home to selected aircraft types and there are combinations and permutations of base versus operation versus aircraft type. #1 on the list gets to pick what he wants to do and #2 gets to choose, and so on and so on. There's no canonization, jealousies, competition. Ungh.
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That's why I often avoid hotel breakfasts at my shop, or at least go before or after most of the crowd shows up. We have way too many guys here who talk about nothing else on layovers other than 1) the airplane, or 2) how the company and/or union is screwing us today. Those are also the same guys you see on the jet pulling out copies of Air Transport World or, worse yet, Air Cargo World magazine.

I mean hell, do these people not have lives outside the airline?
 
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