Stop the Whipsaw

More like lipstick with a dead pig attached, a dead pig that was mauled to death by other pigs that wanted to get to the lipstick, unfortunately, by the time the other pigs have killed each other off and one remains it finds nothing but a pile of rotting corpses of it's fellow pigs and an empty lipstick tube.


Wow, if this doesnt scare you out of this career, I dont know what will. :D
 
Unless it has a direct impact on safety or their $250 round trip tickets, the mouthbreathers in the back dont care unfortunately.

Those very same "mouthbreathers" that pay your salary? Why such contempt for the "mouthbreathers"? Is it your fault that Wendy's or McDonald's prices their food the way they do? What impact do "the mouthbreathers" have on the price of a ticket - those are set by the people selling them. All "mouthbreathers" can do is pay the posted price on a ticket...which is revenue...which pays salaries.
 
Those very same "mouthbreathers" that pay your salary? Why such contempt for the "mouthbreathers"? Is it your fault that Wendy's or McDonald's prices their food the way they do? What impact do "the mouthbreathers" have on the price of a ticket - those are set by the people selling them. All "mouthbreathers" can do is pay the posted price on a ticket...which is revenue...which pays salaries.


With the lack of airline loyalty among most mouthbreathers, Id assume consumer demand plays some sort of role in where a company chooses to set their ticket prices. If they want to put butts in seats, they arent going to be offering $600+ RT tickets in a semi terrible economy. They sell them cheap to appease consumer demand and tack on other fees. That is where the airlines are making a lot of their money today along with premium class ticket sales.
 
With the lack of airline loyalty among most mouthbreathers, Id assume consumer demand plays some sort of role in where a company chooses to set their ticket prices. If they want to put butts in seats, they arent going to be offering $600+ RT tickets in a semi terrible economy. They sell them cheap to appease consumer demand and tack on other fees. That is where the airlines are making a lot of their money today along with premium class ticket sales.

It's give and take. Since the overall flying experience at all of the domestics is about the same ("Moooooo! MOOOOOO!"), no one has any real incentive to have allegiance to any carrier. In fact, the way things are now, instead of people swearing to only fly one particular airline, people tend to say that they will NEVER fly a particular airline. Kinda like reverse allegiance. I feel that way about two carriers in particular. Thankfully, two other carriers, AA and SWA, dominate here in STL, so I have that going for me.

I've said this before, and I'll keep saying it: I would gladly pay a reasonable amount more to not feel like a bag of meat when I travel. Not First Class more, but man... there has got to be a middle ground. The disparity between coach prices and First Class for our trip to France last fall could have paid for a nice used car. That's silly.

I don't travel like the average "mouthbreather." When I fly, I am presentable. I'm always in a collared shirt, and almost always in slacks instead of jeans. Dress shoes (slip-ons now, just for convenience at the groping station), sometimes a sport coat. I generally avoid bringing my entire life with me when I travel, and if I do, it gets checked. I try to be as friendly as possible to all of the crew I come in contact with. I've even been tempted to bring coffee and donuts or something to the onboard crew, but not sure how well/if that would go over. I genuinely appreciate the ability to travel long distances quickly. In fact, the flying part of the trip is half the fun for me. I always get the window seat. Always.

I know there are people like me out there. Problem is that most airlines cater to the lowest and the highest common denominator, leaving the middle ground to fend for themselves. I'm in that middle ground, and it sucks. I'm not looking for the Geo Metro of flying, nor am I looking for the Bentley of flying. An Audi or BMW would be nice, but hell, at this point, I'd settle for a nicely loaded Buick.

I want fair and decent wages for pilots and the rest of the crew. I think it absolutely sucks that someone that has sunk around $100,000 into training makes poverty-level wages for the first several years, and won't actually see returns on that investment for quite some time... and given the state of the industry, perhaps never. I think it is absolutely ridiculous the way that seniority works in the airline industry. I'm sure several of you are completely fine with it, but I cannot think of a single other line of work where your experience and time on the job account for zilch when you move to another employer. That's completely stupid, in my humble opinion.

Anyway, now I'm rambling and have taken the thread of topic with my rant. Apologies. It's just frustrating what the industry has become, and not just from the pilot's perspective. Trust me... there ARE people in the back (the so-called mouthbreathers) that want change, that desire to have quality travel, that would gladly support better lives for the crew, and would have no problem paying reasonably more to make that happen.
 
I'm struggling to understand why this is being posted as if it's some new, innovative idea. I've only really been paying attention to commercial flying for the last 10 years or so, and I can think of two or three other times this was attempted.
 
I'm struggling to understand why this is being posted as if it's some new, innovative idea. I've only really been paying attention to commercial flying for the last 10 years or so, and I can think of two or three other times this was attempted.


The difference this time is that more "career orientated" regionals are going to get hosed. So their pilots decided they should start engaging others to try to stop the hosing.
 
I don't think anyone believes it will succeed. It is more just a way to create awareness amongst regional pilots at a time when management(USair management), is trying to dangle shiny new airplanes in exchange for a B-Scale concession that would further degrade an already crappy pay job.
 
This has got to be the only industry I've ever seen where the customers are frequently blamed for the shortcomings of the business.

I'm with SteveCostello and, surprisingly, WacoFan on this one. Airline customers have always paid whatever the ticket price was when there was a flight going where and when they wanted to go. Even before de-regulation.
 
Add a $2 surcharge for the Captain and $1 for the FO. Now the customers are paying for well trained and well compensated crew. Raises come when you step up in equipment.

So a 50 sweater Captain gets $100 and $50 for the FO.

I know the math doesn't work but the concept does.

People pay $7 for snacks. Surely $3 for crew is acceptable.

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Good grief... a surcharge on ticket prices just to make sure the pilots don't have to eat Ramen for a month.

Actually, with the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen. I would be even less surprised to see most of the "mouthbreathers" opt out of paying that surcharge. "Wut? Pay the pilots better? Screw that. Get me mah peanuts!"
 
Add a $2 surcharge for the Captain and $1 for the FO. Now the customers are paying for well trained and well compensated crew.

$3 extra for decent crew wages, are you NUTS!

Oh wait, how much to check this bag of dirty underwear? $35? Oh ok, that's fine.
 
No need to bash on Ramen. Seriously, there is a new alternative and its cheap and very tasty. Ask Derg

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