I'll agree with some of your post. Although, if you look at the legacies, and thats what we really have to compete against, their CA rates are actually often lower that ours.
That's fine with me. Compare our pay rates against what theirs WILL be here in about 3-5 years. Their SPC's are gearing up for a fight to the death when their next contracts come up for renewal. Management bit too deep and you can expect to see at least one or two of them on the brink of strike trying to take at least half of it back.
And most of them do not credit as many pay hours as we do per month. You have to look at soft pay rules as well as actaul pay to get a fair comparison.
Flat E-190 rates at Blue are actually lower than our for FO's, and considerably lower for CA's.
OK, it doesn't work both ways. JetBlue flat rates don't count. Period. You have to look at their blended rates. You want to talk about credit in your first paragraph above but then don't want to look at what JBlu pilots actually credit. I have 3 close friends over there that haven't credited less than 85 hours in 2 years, usually closer to 90. That means 15-20 hours of that is at a 50% override.
You have to use the blended rates for a fair comparison.
SWA? Totally different company, and I don't think it will be too much longer until that party starts to end.
I disagree, and I think a lot of people who think they're going to take pay cuts will be in for a shock.
Do I think they'll get huge increases like they have the last couple negotiating sessions? No, I believe it likely they'll simply get COLA and longevity increases, keeping them at the top of the food chain.
I believe that simply because SWA management understands how to treat their employee group. The book Nuts! said it best: "Treat your frontline employees well and they'll take care of your customer".
With that mentality, you think they'll come asking for pay cuts? Unlikely, they'll simply raise fares to keep their margins intact and, let's face it, SWA still drives fares on any routes they fly.
The DVD that never arrived? I don't trust those people as far as I can throw them. Numbers can be made to look like anything you want.
Straight pay? No, they can't. That's management B.S. right there.
Contractual pay rates for individual carriers are available to anyone who wants them. The only thing the NC did when they put out that DVD was fail to use the JBlue blended rates, every other rate was correct.
Yes, I checked.
You must consider the B fund as part of compensation. It is an aditional 10.5% pay starting your second year. You don;t have to contribute any of your own money and you still get it. Most other companies that you mentioned above do not do that. Even SWA. And vested in 5 years? Not a bad deal considering you put NOTHING in there.
No, at SWA you get a nice lump of stock options.
I don't consider the B Fund as part of my base compensation. I look at it as an addition, just like the work rules, and come up with a final number for compensation.
That number still falls under my minimum happy place.
Can't speak with any certainty about health insurance at other airlines. I do know that compared to many other industries, we actually have a pretty good deal here.
This is the worst insurance plan I have ever seen which, after working for 3 charter operators and 4 airlines, is saying a lot.
I thank God every day that my wife's Aetna plan (which is identical to ours) only costs her $80 per pay period for family coverage instead of the $198 per pay period here.
We're not the worst, but we're in the bottom 3. Yes, I've checked that, too.
When I said we don't have as much to offer, I was not refering to the pilots. I was refering to AirTran, we don't have as much to offer to the flying public as say, United. Our only advantage is cheaper tickets.
I know what you meant, I simply twisted it to make a point.
If we can't attract pilots, we'll be a continuous revolving door for people to come and get the 737 type and move on to SWA, FDX, or Legacies as they start hiring. It's already started.
Other airlines that have had that happen usually end up as neat poster art in airport restaurants and are seen nowhere else.
Dramatic? Yeah. True? A lot of the time, yeah.
We all have our goals for a contract. Mine are absolutely ZERO giveback in work rules and a 25% initial pay raise for F/O's with longevity and cola each year after that, and somewhere between 15-20% for CA's.
Remember, 10% of those rates is simply COLA that we haven't received for the last 3 years, so that works out to only a 15% raise in equivalent spending power for F/O's, 5-10% for CA's.
You consider that excessive?
