Freight Dog
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2001
- Posts
- 2,232
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People will still line up left and right for a chance to fly a Boeing or an Airbus regardless of the pay.
So I was doing some looking around on airlinepilot central, and I just can't believe those FO payscales. What makes it worse is the fact that they have lower guarentees than regionals have. DAL has a 65 hr guarentee, Continental has a 72 hr guarentee, AA has a 64. Then you look at those payrates and you are making less than an RJ captain for a long long time. Since the upgrades seem to look like atleast 10 yrs (except CAL) why is it that everyone is jumping at the majors. The FO pay is AWFUL. At United, a 2nd year FO will make $42,000. a 5th yr FO will make $65,000. In contrast lets say your a 5 year Captain at ExpressJet. You will bring home $75,000 easy. I would say most people at XJT get between 85 and 90 hrs of credit a month. So I guess XJT guys make more than Legacy drivers. That makes SICK. I don't know how ya'll do it. PLEASE tell me that you atleast get more than 65 HOURS a month of credit. Otherwise I guess the LCC's are not that bad of an option. Atleast you get more than 65 hrs of pay. And you can upgrade in 2-3 yrs. Maybe I am missing something here, but how can you be in this industry for as many yrs as it takes to get to a Major, but make less than you did flying your regional jet.
My rant is over.
PS-(I DID NOT PROOF READ THIS SO THERE MAY BE SPELLING ERRORS)
So I was doing some looking around on airlinepilot central, and I just can't believe those FO payscales. What makes it worse is the fact that they have lower guarentees than regionals have. DAL has a 65 hr guarentee, Continental has a 72 hr guarentee, AA has a 64. Then you look at those payrates and you are making less than an RJ captain for a long long time. Since the upgrades seem to look like atleast 10 yrs (except CAL) why is it that everyone is jumping at the majors. The FO pay is AWFUL. At United, a 2nd year FO will make $42,000. a 5th yr FO will make $65,000. In contrast lets say your a 5 year Captain at ExpressJet. You will bring home $75,000 easy. I would say most people at XJT get between 85 and 90 hrs of credit a month. So I guess XJT guys make more than Legacy drivers. That makes SICK. I don't know how ya'll do it. PLEASE tell me that you atleast get more than 65 HOURS a month of credit. Otherwise I guess the LCC's are not that bad of an option. Atleast you get more than 65 hrs of pay. And you can upgrade in 2-3 yrs. Maybe I am missing something here, but how can you be in this industry for as many yrs as it takes to get to a Major, but make less than you did flying your regional jet.
My rant is over.
PS-(I DID NOT PROOF READ THIS SO THERE MAY BE SPELLING ERRORS)
19 years at Eagle, in my very early 40's.
Last 4 years averaged $122,00/year and 13 days off per month. Not a single junior man, although a few reroutes when last turn canceled. If I flew my base schedule only, I'd be around $95,000/year and average 16 days off/month. Eagle matches 87.5 % of the 8% I put in my 401(k), next year a 100% match. Started that in 1991 and now at $368,000 (got two other funds totalling almost twice that). Drive to work.
Why would I dump that for a 737 at EWR, commuting on a quarter of the pay, no better of a schedule, most likely if I did keep my pension it would be watered down, schedule worse, 401(k) worse and no job security ?
Ah what do I know.................Just another clueless RJ chump who isn't a REAL airline pilot.
But hey, that's o.k. Call me anything you want as I go to the bank with $10 grand every month (not killing myself doing it, either). At this point, it's my best bet. Almost 1 million in investments means I've funded my own retirement in 18-23 years (projected to need 2.6 million-wow !). If Eagle goes south, I'm still in failry good shape.
Keep your 737. I'll leave that slot to the 27 year old, 3000 hour RJ F/O who can make something more out of it.
Is anyone worried about the fact that CAL cancelled 1/4 of Express RJ fleet, and will possibly do the same two years from now. Quite frankly I would be a bit nervous if I worked at Express and was planning to stay their for my career. Express has many challenges ahead as a company, and the future their is certainly not guaranteed anymore than anywhere else.