USA Today -- Airline Employment

[FN FAL]

Why don't you get off your high horse and think about this for a second. At 22, how many of us had any real responsibilities, or life experience for that matter?

Uhhh...by the time I was 21, I had already served four years in armed forces. If you're 22 and you haven't had any opportunity for real responsibility and real experience, it's only because you chose the easy life of sucking mammy's teat and living on your parents dime.

 

[Anaconda]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/jobcenter/2004-10-21-career-side_x.htm

 

[FN FAL]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/jobcenter/2004-10-21-career-side_x.htm

Typical..."I'm not a MAJOR airline pilot, but I do play one on television!"

I bet if management showed you guys some poontang on a regular basis, not only could they get you guys to pay for trainining, but they could get the salaries back down to a profitible 12,000 a year as well.

 

[schafjet]

The airlines will continue to undercut and lower wages of pilots until no one will want to work for sh!t wages. People who once had an interest in this industry will pursue other more finacially viable careers. After all people work to earn a living and create a nice life for themselves and their families. Once the wages hit rock bottom and people avoid this career like the plague, then maybe, just maybe, the airlines will have to do something to attract qualified candidates. At that point pilots may have bargaining power again and won't say "ya I'll work for less than I'm worth." Until then keep watching your wages go in the tank because we have people who will have the attitude "this is fun, I'd do it for nothing" (or at least next to nothing). Again, as pilots we are our own worst enemies.

 

[Publishers]

Relevance

Is there something at all relevant about a company being able to pay a particular wage..... If the company is making money hand over fist, does that mean the receptionist should be making $100k a year. No! not how things are at all.

Airlines do not exist to employ, the employ to produce. Produce profits for the business. While not diminishing the skill it takes to fly an aircraft, in the scheme of the business, the pilots are not a major element in success. They are an element in the production of the product, but understand this:

If you took your cost, added them together, then added your desired margin, this would be great. It would also be what the situation was during regulation.

Today, you look at the market, determine what you can get to have a share of the market, and then try and match your costs to them.

The bar does not get raised or lowered by your demands, it gets raised or lowered by what can fit the model. If Jetblue had to pay senior legacy airline wages from day one, they likely would never have started.

 

[pilotyip]

Human Nature

Remember the old board, pilots used to bad mouth SWA for paying "slave wages", and demeaning the respectability of the airline pilot. Now I see SWA as the industry standard and everyone and their brother trying to be hired by SWA. The only thing constant is change. So get ready for change. For those of us who have never made $120K/yr, we see nothing wrong with that pay level. For those who have made more and expected more, they see it as unacceptable. I believe the airlines will have no trouble staffing at that pay level, and in the end it may weed out those who do not really like to fly for a living.

 

[Stinkbug]

Uhhh...by the time I was 21, I had already served four years in armed forces. If you're 22 and you haven't had any opportunity for real responsibility and real experience, it's only because you chose the easy life of sucking mammy's teat and living on your parents dime.

Hat's off to you for your service...but let's not generalize too much. I too did my time in the Army - after four years of college (paid for by the Army and myself, by the way). I think the majority of newcomers to aviation at that age are coming into it with at least some college nowadays, and I don't consider that real life experience. Most are single and fending only for themselves, thus have very few responsibilities. Of course there are exceptions such as yourself, but to say that having no real experience is "only because you chose the easy life of sucking mammy's teat and living on your parents dime" is a bit of a stretch. I stand by what I said before. Cut the newbies some slack and allow them their honeymoon period with the airline job. They'll come around soon enough on their own.

 

[capt. megadeth]

Stink,
I am not on my "high horse"....you are right...I did have stars in my eyes. Somedays...I still do. But I never thought the $20K a year I was making was acceptable. Just like I don't think $100K a year is acceptable for a captain responsible for 150+ people while the CEO is raking in millions of dollars asking for employee paycuts. I thought commuters were a means to making more and not having to work 2 jobs for the rest of my life.
Also, I can't believe that comment about being young and having responsibility especially since you say you were in the service. Almost all of the soldiers in Iraq dying every day are in their early 20s. Now there's something to bi!ch about!

 

[Stinkbug]

capt. megadeth,

I would never disparage the contributions of our young troops in Iraq. Don't take what I said out of context. Once again, I was talking about the youngsters we see entering aviation these days...most of them are fresh out of college because they've been told it's a requirement for employment. Their first flying job is, more often than not, their first real "career" job. I would imagine the "Dumb $hit!" you flew with fits into that category.

I agree with you about the direction wages are going. I just was hoping you'd lighten up a little on the new kid with stars in his eyes.

 

[FN FAL]

Hat's off to you for your service...

Thanks...but nobody owes me anything. The government made good on the contract I signed with them and I took advantage of the educational assistance and the GI Bill regarding home loans. As far as I am concerened, we're square.

When I left high school at 17, by dropping out of the 12th grade and enlisting, I had finally had enough waiting. Patience my ass, it was time to go out in the world and do SOMETHING. I got sick of all the bs in high school and as well as with everybody else that didn't have a clue as to what they were going to do with themselves.

...but to say that having no real experience is "only because you chose the easy life of sucking mammy's teat and living on your parents dime" is a bit of a stretch. I stand by what I said before. Cut the newbies some slack and allow them their honeymoon period with the airline job. They'll come around soon enough on their own.

It may be stretch, but it is what it is. I don't really care if guy goes right out of highschool and gets into an aviation college and pursues a career. Never said anything about that. People do it all the time in lots of other careers as well.

However, if someone is complaining about not having any real life experience or real life responsibilities...it's only because they didn't pursue them.

I for one, as nice as my home life was, could not wait one more minute to get the ball rolling. It was time to strike out on my own and plant myself face first into the world...even if it meant making my mom come down with me to the navy recruiter and sign zee papers!