UAX/SKW Jumpseating vs. United Greed

[Fly2AK]

It's always funny to hear guys with a decade of regional experience talk about what a POS the "new guys" made of the industry. They make a mess and expect us to clean it up.

Just to make things clear, I went into the regionals flying a turboprop. The RJ's came on property 6 years after I got there and my turboprop went away and thanks to 9/11 and the bottom feeders I was forced to fly an RJ at payrates I would never had agreed to hence my leaving and finding a better career path. Somehow the generation of guys in the regionals these days see United, Delta, US Airways, ect.... as a place that should give them all this flying and they should get the same benifits as the mainline guys. I am just tired of hearing all the bitching of the give me generation. It's about time you grow up, move out of your parents basement and make your profession respectable again! You sit here and bitch about the mainline carriers, yet if it wasn't for that mainline carrier you would not have a job. Be thankful for what you have!

 

[Max Q]

Just to make things clear, I went into the regionals flying a turboprop. The RJ's came on property 6 years after I got there and my turboprop went away and thanks to 9/11 and the bottom feeders I was forced to fly an RJ at payrates I would never had agreed to hence my leaving and finding a better career path. Somehow the generation of guys in the regionals these days see United, Delta, US Airways, ect.... as a place that should give them all this flying and they should get the same benifits as the mainline guys. I am just tired of hearing all the bitching of the give me generation. It's about time you grow up, move out of your parents basement and make your profession respectable again! You sit here and bitch about the mainline carriers, yet if it wasn't for that mainline carrier you would not have a job. Be thankful for what you have!

Let me just make things clear. Your generation ran this industry into the ground long before I got here.

 

[Fly2AK]

Let me just make things clear. Your generation ran this industry into the ground long before I got here.

No not my generation. It was the generation before me that snubbed their noses to the RJ's and it is the current generation that continues to fuel the growth of RJ's by flying a 90 passenger jet for nothing.

 

[Max Q]

For nothing? I don't know about you but I'm a 3rd-year FO, single, 26, no children, minimal student loan payments, two paid off cars, a house, and plenty of money left over at the end of the month for basic cable and beer. None of that would've been possible had I taken any other available route.

Before the regionals, I flew single pilot, single engine, in garbage weather 24/7 for peanuts. Corporate flight departments we're suffering all over the country, nobody wanted to learn how to fly, and the regionals were the best option at the time and still is for many "new guys". You're blaming us for not "fixing" the current state of this industry (especially in this economic climate) for conditions that a generation ahead of YOU created? Fix it how? Quit? And go where? Do what? Perhaps flip hamburgers, if I'm lucky.

The business model has changed. Decide whether you're going to be the butcher or the meat. The butchers are the guys that learned how to fly shortly after 9/11 (despite recommendations to explore other careers), are currently employed by the regionals, and will soon be capitalizing off the massive wave of attrition, forced retirement, and overall lack of interest in aviation by 20 somethings that are deterred by poor QOL and pay. I'll be the butcher if it means a better QOL. I didn't create this sorry job but if it's even marginally better than what I did before, you can bet your *** I'll interview for it.

While I'm here, I'll continue to support our union and refuse anything larger than 76 seats in mainline colors. If I ever decide that a move to a larger airline is feasible and it's my turn to vote on scope, I'll vote for a sub 76-seat airframe (if it's still economically sound) and my seniority will dictate whether or not I am stuck flying the POS.