AirTran hiring?

[atpcliff]

Hi!
AirTran is bad. USAir is bad. UAL is bad. Not to mention Midwest or Frontier...Republic is awful.
Many Qatar guys say Emirates is WAY better...Many Emirates guys say EK is terrible.
The NWA guy said DAL was better...the DAL guy said Delta was awful and Continental better...the Continental guy said he wished he stayed at NetJets, the NJA guys just took leave for another job.

Where does it end???

cliff
NBO
PS-So far, have been on this trip for 160+ days, with no end in sight!

 

[Lear70]

LOLOLOL Cliff,,,

For what it's worth, I've had the same experiences. You look back and realize there were some great jobs to be had compared to AirTran. Flexjet was great to begin with, then a guy who became my fleet manager helped run off literally DOZENS of Captains (and who was later demoted and nearly fired for racism who also sabotaged my Southwest interview with a bad employment reference because of a personal conflict). Now, I hear it's pretty good again with a guy I knew and liked in the C.P.'s office.

I look back on my Express One days, thinking at the time we were underpaid (we were, comparably, but it paid more then than any comparable position does in this economy), but the schedule was great and the flying was easy. Wish it hadn't gone out of business when FedEx took over the USPS routes.

I look back on when I got notice at Express One that I was getting furloughed in 3 months and was at Kit Darby's dog and pony show in L.A. and got offered a Netjets job after b.s.'ing with their hiring team for an hour in between visiting the majors table. At the time who knew it would turn out to be such an incredible missed opportunity and the "majors" wouldn't be so "major" of a job...

When I was looking at AirTran, I didn't even have apps IN at UAL, American wasn't hiring (and had a ton of TWA guys newly on furlough), and no, I never had an interview call for DAL (although I did get one for NWA right about the time I got singled out by AirTran management - they canceled the interview when they got a copy of my termination letter).

Being at AirTran doesn't have anything to do with "not being good enough" to get on at one of the other Majors, it's all about timing and who you know. Not to mention, at the time most of us left our regionals to come here, who knew AirTran management would turn out to be THIS incredibly hostile? It's a strange career, Q4U, you never know how it's going to turn out until the day you hang up your hat for the last time...

 

[funnyman12]

I work at Airtran and I like it!!! Granted there are many things that could be much much better but you negative FI guys need to get a freakin' life. I've been there about 2 1/2 years and have great schedules(minus the horrible reserve!!) and my fellow friends that went to Continental and UsAirways are furloughed and has worse schedules. Our pay at Airtran is the lowest no doubt, but Continental, for one, has some pretty bad work rules. I've talked to several guys there that said we were lucky to have 12 hr duty day and 4 hr min day and that their pref bid is horrible. Is our management ridiculous and treat us like lil babies....Definately! But I knew that when I signed up for the job. I researched what life at Airtran was like and knew we were the lowest paid major airline pilots. But I saw and still see great potential here. You guys have to stop the grass is greener on the other side BS! You are the guys that make airline pilots sound like spoiled brats!!!!! Our former union kinda f'd up everything 2 years ago and the company is a bunch of pricks that took advantage of that. Alpa has been on property for a few months and now the "more significant" sections to negotiate on are coming up. We will see what transpires in the next several months....if we don't have a good TA (at LEAST somewhere between JetBlue and Alaska) by January I will be more to the militant side. In closing I'm happy that I chose Airtran. Lets face it, being an airline pilot these days is not what we signed up for. At the same time though, Airtran is just like every other airline (other than SWA). For those of you not at Airtran that read these post, take them with a grain of salt. Who the heck knows the best place to be.....then again I'm sure a lot of you will still be on FI daily in 15 years. Just like a Wall Street analyst we will see which one of you "airline experts" were correct. Watch Sun Country be the best place to work for! Not very likely, but ya never know. I for one took my gamble here and i give it a 25% it works out, but that is the same percentage I give any airline in the next 15 years.

 

[airline#5]

I work at Airtran and I like it!!! Granted there are many things that could be much much better but you negative FI guys need to get a freakin' life. I've been there about 2 1/2 years and have great schedules(minus the horrible reserve!!) and my fellow friends that went to Continental and UsAirways are furloughed and has worse schedules. Our pay at Airtran is the lowest no doubt, but Continental, for one, has some pretty bad work rules. I've talked to several guys there that said we were lucky to have 12 hr duty day and 4 hr min day and that their pref bid is horrible. Is our management ridiculous and treat us like lil babies....Definately! But I knew that when I signed up for the job. I researched what life at Airtran was like and knew we were the lowest paid major airline pilots. But I saw and still see great potential here. You guys have to stop the grass is greener on the other side BS! You are the guys that make airline pilots sound like spoiled brats!!!!! Our former union kinda f'd up everything 2 years ago and the company is a bunch of pricks that took advantage of that. Alpa has been on property for a few months and now the "more significant" sections to negotiate on are coming up. We will see what transpires in the next several months....if we don't have a good TA (at LEAST somewhere between JetBlue and Alaska) by January I will be more to the militant side. In closing I'm happy that I chose Airtran. Lets face it, being an airline pilot these days is not what we signed up for. At the same time though, Airtran is just like every other airline (other than SWA). For those of you not at Airtran that read these post, take them with a grain of salt. Who the heck knows the best place to be.....then again I'm sure a lot of you will still be on FI daily in 15 years. Just like a Wall Street analyst we will see which one of you "airline experts" were correct. Watch Sun Country be the best place to work for! Not very likely, but ya never know. I for one took my gamble here and i give it a 25% it works out, but that is the same percentage I give any airline in the next 15 years.

Your lack of experience says it all. Let's see how "happy" you are when your still getting $hit on a decade from now.

 

[RIDETHELIGHTING]

Your on airline 5, I don't thnk you should be Giving advise to anybody. Now or a decade from now.

 

[Ty Webb]

Where to start with this rube . . . .

How about

"Shut the f@ck up, Donny".

Go back to your 1900, putz.

 

[Flying-Corporal]

Don't believe all the negative stuff you hear here. My buddy is there, he is pretty happy, flies a lot, company making $$$, etc. I wish I'd done that. There is nothing worse than looking for a flying job in this economy ...

You guys that are on the airline #5+, go a do sth else in life. Get an MBA or an IT degree, make more money, be happy. Why make everyone else miserable in the cockpit and on this board??

 

[funnyman12]

Well I'm very happy for my life and everything I have. I'm sorry if some people out there focus on what they don't have rather than what they have. Have fun being angry and upset and I will gladly take your seniority# when you chase an "awesome" airline! I have has 4 jobs my whole life since high school. Ice cream store, CFI, Colgan, and here. Colgan sux.....true, but my buddies whom chased those shiny jets have never upgraded. Awww I feel sad that they couldn't stick it out at Colgan for 2 years.....

 

[Captzaahlie]

Don't be stupid Junior. This place really sux, worse than unemployment...I know having been there many times.

BTW, for every couple of "great people" you'll fly with, enjoy the scabs. True, not too many flyin the line, but most the mangmt pilots.

The environment is at this $hit hole airline is worse than you could imagine...will have you hatin your career choice.

Why dont you just kill yourself then....

 

[Lear70]

There's *SOME* truth to what you're saying Funnyman, but not everyone had it so well.

Many of us came up in the mid-90's where flying jobs were few and far in between and didn't get to go straight from instructing into an RJ job... it took 1,500 - 2,000 hours or so just to get an INTERVIEW at a regional back then, so most of us went into charter in the interim unless we PFT'd (which many of us refused to do). We also remember what it was like from our parents in the 70's - 90's when airline jobs were still one of THE BEST careers to go into. There were doctors and attorneys who left their fields to come to OURS. When's the last time you heard of that happening in the last 5 years?

I enjoyed my flying at AirTran and thought I'd made a great decision... right up to the Christmas debacle of 2006 when management suddenly started yanking quality of life and wilfully violating the CBA. It's pretty much sucked since then for everyone except the super-senior and the people who still cut their side deals with the company to get favorable treatment back, which undercuts the whole collective bargaining process. People like that are part of the problem, not the solution.

I still think this place *COULD* be a great place to work, *IF* management stopped with the hostility, bargained in good faith, gave us a CBA worthy of a CAREER airline, then HONORED their agreement and didn't reinterpret that once it's ratified.

The ball is really in their court. Until then, yes, I believe several other airlines would be better places to hang your hat for a career. I also believe the majority of our pilots would agree. YMMV