airliners.net mentality... the downfall of aviation?

[AGuyThatFlys]

If I need to laugh (or cry) I check out the message boards. Great entertainment--like watching the lines of fanboys at Star Wars movies.

But, I'd like to know if anyone has posted on airliners.net telling them what pilots and industry insiders think about the fanboys. Anyone ever invite them to flightinfo.com?

 

[Thedude]

THEN you can make that statement. Otherwise you'd better figure out that consumers want the best value they can get, and in the airline world that means the cheapest fare they can find because safety is assumed. If airlines want to compete then they need to lower costs, one of those costs is labor pay and salaries are going down.

Just like Wal-Mart pays minimum wage with no benefits and sells cheap stuff mostly made overseas.

Everbody wants something for nothing but that doesnt happen very often. The problem is most of the US carriers have priced ticket sales to the point they can no longer make a profit. In the fall of 2000 the airlines were more than happy to slap on a fuel surcharge but now they cringe at the thought. Its almost like they want to show a loss....kinda funny since they happen to be in contract negiotaions while showing the loss.

Walmart pays minimum wage because they can. As soon as they have problems finding workers they would increse there pay. Same problem we have in the airline biz.

 

[smellthejeta]

Same problem we have in the airline biz.

I was talking with a commercial pilot friend of mine about the cost of flight training these days and how cost prohibitive it is really starting to get. If I could still rent a C172 for $65/hr wet, I'd strongly consider finishing off the rest of my ratings soon.

At least in SoCal, the cost of a C172 is north of $100. I can't afford that and actually build a decent amount of flight time or take a decent x-c trip. SoCal-Vegas in a C172, $275 round trip? Great! Can't go enough! SoCal-Vegas in a C172, $500 round trip, um... The point is the leisure trips aren't so affordable anymore.

My friend says he saw something in AOPA where the number of student hours being flown at flight schools is plummenting. This *could* take some of the downward pressure off of entry level wages. I'm not holding my breath -- but entry level wages will rise one "no thank-you" at a time.

 

[AirBadger]

Saw this hilarious gem of a thread on airliners.net : http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/2892976/

Now, I am a dork when it comes to planes, but thats on a whole other level.

 

[kingsize]

Saw this hilarious gem of a thread on airliners.net : http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/2892976/

Now, I am a dork when it comes to planes, but thats on a whole other level.

wow that's incredible. We might have to hire some of those guys to be our full-time schedulers. They'd do it for free I bet, and keep track of every last tail number, aircraft and aircrew status for us, maybe evenkeep track of the logbooks. They might be able to do it from their home computers too.

 

[AGuyThatFlys]

Check this out:
http://www.airliners.net/discussions/trip_reports/read.main/81630/

This if from the "Trip Report" discussion board. Yes--they file reports of their flight as a passenger, including the menu of the meals served! Some post pictures.

One of many...like some kind of restaurant review?

 

[Stealthh21]

You have to look at the difference between the people on here and the people on there. We have pages and pages of threads arguing about pay , workrules, alter egos blah blah blah. I just spent a few minutes reading a thread there at Airliners, and people were getting nasty arguing about what airports were hubs for AA. It's a bunch of fans, who cares.

 

[accinelli]

Im really puzzled by the type of people who visit airliners.net

They are literally obsessed with airplanes. They act like sports fans when it comes to airline companies. Many of them know fleet registrations, schedules, status of airplanes, etc. and they dont even work in the industry.

So my question is, are people like that harmful to aviation? Are they the reason companies can get away with short changing their employees, especially the pilots? As long as they put on the fascade to their loyal sports fan customers, they wont have to change their model much, just keep lowering the salary and keep laying off people?

Also, is it harmful when people like that are so obsessed with airplanes, they dont mind taking pilot jobs for pennies?

Or am I just crazy?

You're just crazy.

 

[CX880]

You know why that site seems awkward? It's because there are almost no pilots that post there! All the topics are discussed by teenage flight sim pilots, airline enthusiasts who have no idea, and airline workers. The chance of seing a pilot in those boards is about 2%. I've noticed when there are posts about pilots/pay/airline jobs, it gets real quiet. It's full of teenage sim pilots and people who think they like aviation because they fly once ina while.

 

[WabiSabi]

Check this out:
http://www.airliners.net/discussions/trip_reports/read.main/81630/

This if from the "Trip Report" discussion board. Yes--they file reports of their flight as a passenger, including the menu of the meals served! Some post pictures.

One of many...like some kind of restaurant review?

wow! talk about *"excruciating minutia"!

*Elaine Benis from Seinfeld