Well the stats don't lie. The "300 hour wonder" hiring was nowhere near as prevalent as you made it out to be or perhaps you just misremember, yet you obviously harbor plenty of resentment.
BS. They were hiring anyone with a commercial, instrument and a pulse, provided they weren't white males.
Of course I harbor resentment. I watched that show for almost a decade.
I resent(ed) UAL to the point that when I finally got an interview, 8.5 years after I sent my first app, I blew it off. I briefly considered going, and completely screwing with those aholes during the interview (aerobatics in the sim, wear jeans, tee shirt and leather jacket etc.), but I already had a major job and DEN was too far away to bother. It might've been fun though...
Karma's a bitch and I have NO regrets. The irony is that they actually did me a favor, career wise, as I am far better off where I am, but that
doesn't make discrimination, in any form, OK.
During my time in the commuters from '86 til mid '95, EVERY (numbering 40-50) female or "minority" person I knew of was either scheduled for an interview with UAL, was waiting for a class date, or, in a (very) few select cases, had interviewed and been turned down. The vast majority had well under 1000 hours when called for an interview (most of the Captains at the commuters were hovering around 5-6k hours), and at least 10 were below 500. One of the airlines I worked at went to PFT in the early '90's, and the FOs that were subsequently hired were particularly unqualified, yet EVERY "minority" pilot "hired" during that period was somewhere in the UAL system.
Ironically, all but one of the folks that were turned down were by far the most qualified of the lot, and should've gotten the job. The one that wasn't was a complete basket case and had no business in an airplane, much less an airliner. She's now a Fed.
The first time I submitted an app to UAL was spring of '88. A friend of mine (female) submitted hers within a few days of mine. We were pretty comparable, education/time/experience wise (roughly 2000 hours... in my case, more than half of that in scheduled, turbine service). She had also been involved in an "at fault" accident a few years prior and had received certificate action as a result. My record was (and still is), totally clean. She was called for an interview within a month, and got hired a month later. I got called for an interview 8.5 years later. We've kept in touch over the years, and she's a relatively senior widebody Captain now and doing great.
Don't you think that may be part of the problem?
G.M.A.F.B.
How the hell am I part of the problem? I wasn't the one hiring less or even unqualified pilots while there were thousands of qualified pilots available for the jobs.
The problem was
entirely with UAL's ridiculous and DISCRIMINATORY hiring practices. I don't blame the folks who got the jobs, heck, they'd have been foolish not to take them. Bypassing thousands of perfectly qualified pilots to hire those that were far less qualified, except for their color/sex was
the problem.
I ask again have you ever discussed the situation with a African American pilot or a woman?
LOL.. Yeah, plenty. Most agree that it was heavily skewed in favor of skin color or sex, rather than ability. One of my best friends is a female pilot, who TURNED DOWN UAL (moron) in '93,
solely due to the stigma attached to being a female pilot at UAL. I thought she was nuts then, and told her as much. I still think she's nuts and tell her every time I see her. She is a great stick and would've excelled there, btw.
You don't have to answer but honestly when you see a woman or African American pilot do you automatically think they received special consideration?
Truthfully, I only think that of UAL types that were hired between 85 and 95 or so, since they got the deal of a lifetime.
Many didn't have to pay their dues like the rest of us. Good for them, bad for us, but hey, their parents and grandparents were discriminated against (as if mine weren't....), so it's OK!
Have you ever thought that about a white male pilot?
Only AF fighter types.....
Actually, I know of plenty of white guys who got a leg up due to who they knew or were related to, but that was nowhere near the wholesale discrimination perpetrated by UAL for nearly a decade.