Virgin America Revenue...

[Kalifornia]

However ALL PILOTS (don't kid yourself) are in it for themselves, and there is no unity in this profession.

This statement is in poor taste and is certainly not true. Self centered to some degree - yes. To all degrees - absolutely not. Most pilots will not scab for example. Most pilots will not pick up overtime with furloughs. Don't kid yourself, promoting the idea of no unity as the rule is not helping the profession.

 

[Mamma]

This statement is in poor taste and is certainly not true. Self centered to some degree - yes. To all degrees - absolutely not. Most pilots will not scab for example. Most pilots will not pick up overtime with furloughs. Don't kid yourself, promoting the idea of no unity as the rule is not helping the profession.

True. There are lines 95% of professional pilots won't cross. Scabbing, volunteering for extra time with guys on furlough are some. I wish flying past 60 was one.

 

[Flyer1015]

I'm pretty sure that Fubi's complaint isn't that you're not ALPA. I think it's that you're non-union completely. It's not an ALPA issue.

So? JetBlue Airbus pilots are amongst the highest paid A320 drivers in the country. Factor in that they don't lose 1.95% (that's almost 3,000 dollars for someone who makes $150k) and they come out damn near top compared to other major/legacy A320 pilots.

 

[NEDude]

This statement is in poor taste and is certainly not true. Self centered to some degree - yes. To all degrees - absolutely not. Most pilots will not scab for example. Most pilots will not pick up overtime with furloughs. Don't kid yourself, promoting the idea of no unity as the rule is not helping the profession.

You are correct that most pilots will not scab. But there have been plenty of complaints about pilots pilots picking up open time while guys are on furlough - you could spend days reading all of the threads on this and other message boards about that. Age 60 has been mentioned many times. How about captains agreeing to contractual provisions that sell out junior pilots and make it easier for them to get furloughed - that has happened many times in the last 15 years? How about the B-scale at American in the early 1980s?

Long story short - there are numerous of examples of pilots selling out others for their own personal gain.

 

[NEDude]

I'm employed by Jetblue. How the airline wasn't found guilty of predatory pricing shortly after it's inception is beyond me. What the pilot group has done is fight for better pay and benefits. We are no longer the bottom, you are. However, this discussion has turned to the regionals. If you flew a 1900 for a commuter you operated under the umbrella of a larger carrier. You did not, at any point regardless of where you flew, set your own ticket prices. You operated under the banner of another carrier. This is what makes you a hypocrite. You rail against regionals and majors for creating the regional market yet you flew for one in order to gain experience to move on. You did what half the industry did. They used it for what its worth while you sit atop your pedestal.

Airlines undercut one another based on route. Jetblue did so in the past but it made money. VX undercuts EVERY other airline yet does not turn a profit. There is a big difference here. If VX pays its employee what is considered industry standard, as per your financial reports, you would go out of business. I'm not looking for you to lose your job but those are facts.

Two points - First of all you are incorrect about the BE-1900 operation. No way around it - in our operation the prices were not set by a major airline - they were set by my airlines management. You could buy the tickets through a major partner and earn FF miles - but the operation was entirely structured, priced, and run by my company. There was absolutely no risk incurred by the major airline partner. It was on new routes that were not a part of the major airline partners route structure, nor had they even been at one point, and not one part of that operation operated into and out of a hub of the major carrier. A good percentage of the operation was EAS flying. It turns out the operation was not financially viable and has since been shut down, but at the time the focal point of where I was flying and what I was doing was about as unattached to a mainline operation as you can get in this day and age. I can understand why it may be hard for you to accept that fact because such an operation is so rare in today's environment, and clearly as my company found out there is a reason why it is so rare, but that WAS the reality of the operation.

You announcing that you are employed by JetBlue makes me scratch my head a bit. Your airline, and the wages it was paid at the time, are the whole reason this thing with fubi (and thus my responses) began in the first place. YOUR airlines wages, benefits and work rules were the ones used by the bankruptcy courts to justify cutting pay at other carriers. You yourself just stated that you wonder how your company was not found guilty of predatory pricing. How dare you have the arrogant nerve to come on here and blast others for working for low wages at a start-up and accuse it of being a drain on the industry. By your own admission you career is based on an undercutting start-up that paid low wages!! Quit your job and then come back and get on your soap box you hypocrite!

As for going out of business - you so-called flight info "financial experts" have been predicting for over four years now that Virgin was about to go under. Yet here we stand with the strongest liquidity in the companies history, firm financing in hand for 13 more deliveries into 2013, on the verge of opening a sim center in SFO, recently expanded office space, and have had a 64% growth in fleet size in the past 17 months. So pardon me if I take your prediction that we "would go out of business" with a huge grain of salt. You so-called "experts" have a rotten track record on here.

 

[Fubijaakr]

So? JetBlue Airbus pilots are amongst the highest paid A320 drivers in the country. Factor in that they don't lose 1.95% (that's almost 3,000 dollars for someone who makes $150k) and they come out damn near top compared to other major/legacy A320 pilots.

We're talking about VX not B6. Try to keep up.

 

[Fins Up]

So? JetBlue Airbus pilots are amongst the highest paid A320 drivers in the country. Factor in that they don't lose 1.95% (that's almost 3,000 dollars for someone who makes $150k) and they come out damn near top compared to other major/legacy A320 pilots.

Thread creep on.

I'd be happy to pay my dues in exchange for the opportunity to negotiate a better total compensation package. Ours is not "amongst the highest" in the country.

Thread creep off.

 

[Lake Alice]

The only prices the airline sets under EAS is anything above the governmental rate for that route. Every other route was under the banner of another airline. Jetblue, in my opinion, was predatory pricing. Today the ticket prices and the wages are consistent with the industry. I came to jetblue for the same reason others went to regionals. It's a stepping stone. It serves its purpose. Unlike a regional jetblue sets its own prices and therefore can afford wage increases. I don't blast anyone. I'm not the one crying about regional wages. Regionals serve their purpose. VX is trying to be a major airline while paying like a regional. This I take issue with. When other airlines have to use your airlines pay scales to benchmark then we all have issues. VX is still operating because it is private. Had you been public the "experts" would have been correct years ago.

The majority of us fly for a living. We do it to make money, provide for our families and fund our retirements. The day of flying for the love are gone. It's about finances. VX hurts the industry as a whole because of your low pay and benefits.

 

[tzskipper]

Amen, Brother.

You all have beat this to death so badly, that the original point of the thread was... what again?

This has got to be one of the dumbest threads of all time.

S

 

[jayme]

Amen brother.