Should captain pay top out at 150K?

[imacdog]

Seriously, how do all of you guys keep falling for the same flamebait posted by the same people?

 

[SpauldingSmails]

The job just isn't that hard. A doctor can rent a plane and fly on the weekend...and he makes $200k. Can you do open heart surgery on the weekend?

Doctor's don't necessarily make good pilots either, as history has shown. Come on TC... we've all been the doctor, remember your last FAA medical?

Yeah that's real hard, have you step on a scale, pee in a cup take your blood pressure and make sure you can read some letters.

I think your open heart surgery reference is a little over the top. Just as I'm sure a neurosurgeon couldn't fly the Concorde without years of training.

 

[instructordude]

FYI Instructor Dude, please be man enough to identify yourself should you ever ask for my jumpseat as you will certainly be the very first pilot I will ever denied. I think you are in dire need of an old fashioned blanket party. Future Scab!

You work at CAL and have never denied somebody? That place is filled with scabs.

 

[Green]

OK I don't know what your background is and I really don't care. I came to work at Continental at the end of the old school. Meaning I was a F/E and flew with some of the best pilots and finest gentlemen I have ever flown with, IE vintage 1960's (RCAL) OLD CAL.

Today flying B756 CA two pilot back and forth to Europe with no relief pilot (ie UK Specialist) is bar none the most unsafe flying I have done in my entire career. That includes a short leave of absence flying for Tower Air as a B747 FO flying non sked charter world wide operations.

You can take all the technological advances of modern aircraft and still doesn't compare to a three man crew, period.

By the way a wide body captain in 1977 flying for a top major earned around $125k per year. Run that though an inflation calculator and that runs well north of $400K today.

As the ALPA Captain Elect for Continental EWR Council 170 currently the largest single representational status council in ALPA.

My message to Mr. Kellner, F U PAY ME. If it takes a strike so be it! I demand a contract with massive gains in every section our Contract 08 to include real duty and trip rigs.

FYI Instructor Dude, please be man enough to identify yourself should you ever ask for my jumpseat as you will certainly be the very first pilot I will ever denied. I think you are in dire need of an old fashioned blanket party. Future Scab!

Amen! It's good to see that this industry hasn't been completely overrun by management apologists and pansies...

 

[SIG600]

Are you insane?

You're comparing the expenses full-time military guys have to the rest of us? Hardly a reasonable comparison.

Plus with JetBlue's out-of-pocket health care costs...$107,000 evaporates very quickly. Plus, our company is HQ'd in JFK...kind of expensive compared to your junior sailors.

Police officers on Long Island top out at $117,000 after 9 years with NO overtime. $107,000 might be great at some Navy base....but it's pocket change in the real world.

Boo f'ing hoo. Your average Sailor/Marine is making it happen on $3k/month or less. That kind of pay is an E-5 or better as well. I've got troops bringing home $600/week feeding two kids and a wife. That's including housing allowance, BAS, etc.

By my estimation you've got absolutely no education on the argument you're trying to make.

 

[Mamma]

Let's face it, flying is a blue collar job. For every SWA/Fed Ex/Insert Good Paying Airline here, there are 10 guys at regionals willing to do the same job for less...and probably do it just as well. There's also a ton of guys retiring out of the military with a retirement check also willing to do it cheaper will for sure do it at least better than a regional guy.

The job just isn't that hard. A doctor can rent a plane and fly on the weekend...and he makes $200k. Can you do open heart surgery on the weekend?

This post explains a lot about you. In addition to being an idiot and a flame-baiting troll, you have no respect for what you do or those you do it with. I along with many in the military are embarrassed to have you amongst us. Please disappear.

 

[Tanker Clown]

Doctor's don't necessarily make good pilots either, as history has shown. Come on TC... we've all been the doctor, remember your last FAA medical?

Yeah that's real hard, have you step on a scale, pee in a cup take your blood pressure and make sure you can read some letters.

I think your open heart surgery reference is a little over the top. Just as I'm sure a neurosurgeon couldn't fly the Concorde without years of training.

Come on. All I'm saying is that we all know flying is a cake job. Making $150k/year is borderline theivery. My dog could turn on an autopilot.

Besides, other than wowing people with all the dials and guages, we all know the job is pretty simple. With less than a year of training, you might be able to teach a neurosurgeon how to fly the Concorde. With a year of training a pilot couldn't even give a rectal exam.

 

[PilotOnTheRise]

So some think that senior captains should be making nearly $1million/yr, when factoring inflation? That is probably not going to happen .. ever, and no airline could afford that, and not go into bankruptcy a few years down the road.

If you look at what anybody was making, in the 70's, nobody has kept up with inflation. Pilots seem to always think they are alone in this fight. 95%+ of working Americans, pilot, or not make less than six figures, and struggle to get by.

I have this hard time understanding why so many pilots seem to have this attitude of, "how dare someone make more than me, I'm an airline pilot". There will always be people who make more than you, and there will always be people who make less.

Fightt for better pay, etc., but some people need to get off of their high horse. You are a pilot. It is a job. It doesn't make anybody special, because they can fly an airplane.

 

[L'il J.Seinfeld]

I know it has nothing to do with it, but if we were home every night, maybee. But last time I checked, we defintely aren't

I made 150k as a 3d year FO and was home almost every night.

 

[Mamma]

Boo f'ing hoo. Your average Sailor/Marine is making it happen on $3k/month or less. That kind of pay is an E-5 or better as well. I've got troops bringing home $600/week feeding two kids and a wife. That's including housing allowance, BAS, etc.

By my estimation you've got absolutely no education on the argument you're trying to make.

I do though. It is not really fair to compare military pay and benefits to that of civilian counterparts. There are a lot of perks in the military...free health care, housing with all the bills paid except phone and cable, commissary and tons of support. This is why guys can get by with making 3K a month. I bet if you threw them outside the military with 3K a month, they would be living a very hard life. Health care, rent/mortgage, car payment, electric, garbage, gas bill, various forms of insurance and the such would eat that up quick...especially if you live in a high cost of living area. So, while $107K sounds like a lot, if you live in Seattle/New York City/California/ Chicago and have 2-3 kids it could get challenging.