Pay is not the only issue. A business plan that calls for sustained profitability is my biggest beef. We can't make money with these redicerous fares and little to no hedges. I would luv to be at a place that eats, sleeps and breathes profits. Our operations are too inefficient to truly rock the quarterly numbers. But then I am on the Junior Varsity team and every bad thing you read about jb is in truth, a lie. We have actually been making billions of dollars in profits every year. We also have 99% on time performance and we fly 110% of our schedule. No babies nor small woodland creatures were ever frozen to the tarmac at jfk. Jfk never has delays or 2 hour taxi times. My stock options are worth millions. The only reason pilots help clean the cabins is to sleep with flight attendants ("of course I'm sensitive baby").
Yes, many are leaving. Rumors (fact): 6 the first week of March, 35 or so the first two months of the year. Last year 50-60 (not getting good numbers from the company).
Reserve numbers suck, RSA calls all the time, the seniority list has been hovering around 1800 for a few months now and we having a hard time filling classes. Thus the open houses so close together. It's turning into a direct hire process: come to the interview and if we like you, the paperwork is in order, then you may start w/i a couple of weeks. If you have a backpack, some goo in your hair and a working knowledge of a Dash 8 or CL-65, then you are just what we are looking for. Have all three? You get to sleep with one of Neeleman's daughters (even the young one's, he's Mormon you know).
On the plus side, senior dudes are leaving too so maybe those upgrades won't be so long. But mostly the attrition is from the junior side to places like luv, purp, brown.
The new pay rates are a good step, the retirement (gulp) was var nice (add a b plan and we have a winner) and from what I hear the new reserve rules will really help life for those soon to be 24 month reserve CA stints. So some positives before we all vote for ALPA. At least we get all this stuff frozen when all(pa) hell breaks loose.