Jetblue Fancies Itself A "Career" Airline

[Smarta$$]

I'm not sure of your point, Smartass. My w2 last year was the best it's ever been. There are several good things about working here. In your world that means I should be happy with the constant take always by management and their complete inability to abide by their own "values"?

No. Not what I am saying. Mostly what vegetto said. I suspect he earns in the neighborhood of 200k unless he bids min schedule or is very junior captain. Very hard to take him serious in that case....

 

[Dizel8]

100K used to be a magic number, it was a decade ago, but not any longer.

Is it above the median, why sure, but far below what Major airline pilots used to make, compared to inflation.

Heck, with a bit of over time, one could make more working in the oil/gas field.

 

[pilotyip]

No, what it means is that it makes you, (and all of us) look like entitled, greedy, pathetic whiners when you are in the top 10% of wage earners in the richest nation in the world and you are pissing and moaning like you are a starving African kid eating a small bowl of rice once a day with flies on his eyeballs.

It disengenuous.

There is nothing that says we can't vote in a union and fight for improvements, but if you cant live a very comfortable life on $100k plus a year, you have a serious problem and need to learn to manage your money better. Stop the bitching and vote in the union. Let things get better from there. But remember, there are about 20k plus people that would give their left nut to be where you are now.

Hey stop dealing in reality, this is FI where reality is ignored.

Yep, still no reason to accept less than we are worth.

In the end the consumer of airline tickets will determine what you are worth. Not the fantasy of the way it used to be, flying is still a great job and one of the highest paying jobs in the country for a skilled worker. It is a free market and consumer will change their travel plans for a $1 difference in price. The former low cost carrier with the highest crew per seat mile, is now under financial pressure to maintain profitibility.

 

[Dizel8]

Yip,

You are such a tool, and I mean that in the best possible way, but you have a bit of a slanted view on things.

The customer, whom we love btw, will pay the going fare, just like, despite the rising cost of shipping with FedEx and UPS hasn't stopped them from shipping.

The problem is, in my view, that air carriers are chasing customers at all cost, "who cares if money are lost on each, we make up for it in volume".

Running 90% load factors, but still not making a profit, now that's brilliant!

 

[CapnVegetto]

100K used to be a magic number, it was a decade ago, but not any longer.

Is it above the median, why sure, but far below what Major airline pilots used to make, compared to inflation.

Heck, with a bit of over time, one could make more working in the oil/gas field.

I do not believe that, unfortunately.

My father earned less than that over about 80% of his career.

He managed to help me with my college, put a roof over our heads, food on the table, and clothes on our backs our whole life. We didn't have a new car every other year or a vacation home in the Pocanos or crap like that, but we lead a very good life.

He has been retired now for 7 years, comfortably, and will never work another day in his life.

Its not about how much you make, (over a certain threshold of course), it's about the choices you make and how you manage your life and income.

It ain't rocket surgery. Of course, if you don't like this flying stuff, you could always go work in an oil field.

 

[Dizel8]

Please "Captain",

You might want to take a look at inflation, the increase in college tuition, the increase in medical expenses, the decrease in true retirement plans.

I have no doubt you Dad did all those things, and did them well, but remember inflation, if he made 50K in the 1980's that, purchase power wise,requires quite a bit more today. Find an inflation calculator, crunch the numbers, it'll all make sense.

The average income for the middle class, while perhaps constant in actual dollar pay out, has been eaten up by expenses in other areas.

In the mid '90's, I was making $50K flying for a tiny 135 on demand operator, yet, an FO for a major airline in some cases, barely cracks the 100K mark, yes there is something wrong with that picture.

However, having said that, if you are happy, then who am I to tell you different, it is after all your life.

Here is a nice example: "What cost $52000 in 1994 would cost $75496.39 in 2010."

Why don't you ask YIP what his CA's make today, what their medical insurance cost are, how much they get in retirement?

 

[pilotyip]

Yip,

You are such a tool, and I mean that in the best possible way, but you have a bit of a slanted view on things.

The customer, whom we love btw, will pay the going fare, just like, despite the rising cost of shipping with FedEx and UPS hasn't stopped them from shipping.

The problem is, in my view, that air carriers are chasing customers at all cost, "who cares if money are lost on each, we make up for it in volume".

Running 90% load factors, but still not making a profit, now that's brilliant!

Sorry about being a tool, but I am only posting the reality I see in our industry. But no one can escape the low fare carrier, which is now Spirit, because people want cheap. Spirit from what I hear has the highest profit per airplane of any 121 scheduled pax airline. Airlines are at the mercy of the purchasing public, who with Internet access has made the airline ticket a perfectly elastic commodity.

Look at SWA highest priced airline, highest paid in employees for almost every position, that is great, but they are under tremendous pressure to remain profitable.

Look at FedEx, Fred Smith just posted that air shipments are down because of the competition form surface transportation and cost of shipping FedEx Air. For instance I buy a seal for my brakes in my C-172, it cost 23 cents, I want is the next day, the cost goes to $35, I say ship it ground.

 

[Rerouted]

I left the airlines because I thought the pay was lousy, the lifestyle was worse and the ensuing headaches weren't worth it. The guys I speak to at jetBlue run the gamut from very happy (yes..including a lot of senior pilots), to not as happy with it (although nowhere near as unhappy as what I read on this board). Let's turn this into something that comes off slightly more productive (and easier for those of us who aren't at B6 to understand). I can clue you in that the world is pretty lousy all over right now and jobs stink whether you are away or not...but...I'll always agree that pilots don't get 1/2 what they deserve in pay or rest. Exactly what are you guys looking for over there? List it out for those of us feel for you as professionals, but would like to see the specifics.

 

[Dizel8]

Rerouted,

All the "greedy" pilots at bigblue are looking for, is industry average in ALL areas, pay, benefits, retirement, work rules, etc.

That's it, nothing earth shattering and something that the company agreed to, several times over. This would a big step forward for the group and one of the selling point of the union free environment was, that this was easily achieved without "silly" negotiations delays.

Industry average, that's it, that's all we asked for, and considering our productivity, check out the MIT airlines analysis, that is one heck of a discount to management.

The short of a long story, it's sort of like the scorpion and the frog, the scorpion being management. "Because it's in my nature!"

 

[Lake Alice]

No, what it means is that it makes you, (and all of us) look like entitled, greedy, pathetic whiners when you are in the top 10% of wage earners in the richest nation in the world and you are pissing and moaning like you are a starving African kid eating a small bowl of rice once a day with flies on his eyeballs.

It disengenuous.

There is nothing that says we can't vote in a union and fight for improvements, but if you cant live a very comfortable life on $100k plus a year, you have a serious problem and need to learn to manage your money better. Stop the bitching and vote in the union. Let things get better from there. But remember, there are about 20k plus people that would give their left nut to be where you are now.

Actually we have about 2000 apps on file. The word is quickly getting out. Many pilots are deciding that making the intermediate step to Jetblue while waiting for a major just isn't worth it. To each their own but pilots are not lining up to interview as they did in the past.