whymeworry?
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2005
- Posts
- 701
It's all about sucking it up for a while and looking past your nose. Meaning, the pay hit is temporary in the grand scheme of a career. Sure an XJT guy with 8-10 years will do $100K, and he/ she deserves every penny of that money. But that is pretty much the ceiling for a line pilot at the regionals. Some guys in the training dept will make $120-150 but they're putting 24-26 days per month of work to acheive that.
There are ways to make more money at the majors than what Airline Pilot Central will lead you to believe. Futher, at CAL, most lines are 85 to 90 hrs since we are so short staffed. If you bid B756 in EWR you can fly 120 Hrs as IRO, should you wish to make some extra bucks. At third year pay of $72/ hr (B757), that's $8640/ mo. A buddy of mine who is a bottom line holder turned his March line into 120 hrs of widebody pay (which is approx $11 per hour more) by simply trip trading and whoring himself to death... I believe he finished the month with 8 days off. To each his own, I couldn't work that hard. So what were you saying about RJ pilots making more?
XJT has the best contract out there, one that has been enhanced twice since 9/11, but a lot of other reionals are trailing XJT negotiating performance.. The majors in general, by contrast, have taken two pay hits during that period. We are all now finally taking the gloves off for the next round of negotiations. In other words, expect big pay rewards in the next 2-4 years as we acheive post-concessionary contracts. The gap between regional pay and major pay will grow.
Looking out 20-25 years... a 30-35 yr old major pilot hired today will retire with $1.5 to $1.7 million. The retirement issue has now been fixed and the contributions going forward are in OUR NAMES... they cannot be stolen or cancelled by the company, no different that your 401K. Throw in the extra $1 million in earnings a major pilot will make during a 25 yr career over an RJ pilot and the argument to stay regional becomes background noise, no offence, just the facts. Bigger equipment, better layovers, international, blah, blah, blah... that stuff is just personal preference. I flew a lot of international in my previous career so I am not the least bit excited by the international flying argument but some guys want that experience, something you won't get to do at a regional... save Mexico and Canada.
BTW, I have nothing but utmost respect for our RJ brothers and sisters... especially those who are deciding to stay as a career. They have made a personal choice and I repsect that. Y'all deserve even higher pay rates and should certainly keep your better work rules. I am merely trying to dispell the misnomer that APC pay rates are the final word. One thing is for sure, you're going to have to accept being uncomfortable for a few years in order to reap these kinds of rewards I speak of at a major, i.e. start all over. But waiting will just delay the inevitable if you indeed want to make a lot more money than an RJ pilot.
Nothing wrong with remaining an RJ pilot for a career. An airplane is an airplane. But you will indeed make a lot more money at a Major and it won't take 5, 10, or 15 years to reap that reward... more like 3.
There are ways to make more money at the majors than what Airline Pilot Central will lead you to believe. Futher, at CAL, most lines are 85 to 90 hrs since we are so short staffed. If you bid B756 in EWR you can fly 120 Hrs as IRO, should you wish to make some extra bucks. At third year pay of $72/ hr (B757), that's $8640/ mo. A buddy of mine who is a bottom line holder turned his March line into 120 hrs of widebody pay (which is approx $11 per hour more) by simply trip trading and whoring himself to death... I believe he finished the month with 8 days off. To each his own, I couldn't work that hard. So what were you saying about RJ pilots making more?
XJT has the best contract out there, one that has been enhanced twice since 9/11, but a lot of other reionals are trailing XJT negotiating performance.. The majors in general, by contrast, have taken two pay hits during that period. We are all now finally taking the gloves off for the next round of negotiations. In other words, expect big pay rewards in the next 2-4 years as we acheive post-concessionary contracts. The gap between regional pay and major pay will grow.
Looking out 20-25 years... a 30-35 yr old major pilot hired today will retire with $1.5 to $1.7 million. The retirement issue has now been fixed and the contributions going forward are in OUR NAMES... they cannot be stolen or cancelled by the company, no different that your 401K. Throw in the extra $1 million in earnings a major pilot will make during a 25 yr career over an RJ pilot and the argument to stay regional becomes background noise, no offence, just the facts. Bigger equipment, better layovers, international, blah, blah, blah... that stuff is just personal preference. I flew a lot of international in my previous career so I am not the least bit excited by the international flying argument but some guys want that experience, something you won't get to do at a regional... save Mexico and Canada.
BTW, I have nothing but utmost respect for our RJ brothers and sisters... especially those who are deciding to stay as a career. They have made a personal choice and I repsect that. Y'all deserve even higher pay rates and should certainly keep your better work rules. I am merely trying to dispell the misnomer that APC pay rates are the final word. One thing is for sure, you're going to have to accept being uncomfortable for a few years in order to reap these kinds of rewards I speak of at a major, i.e. start all over. But waiting will just delay the inevitable if you indeed want to make a lot more money than an RJ pilot.
Nothing wrong with remaining an RJ pilot for a career. An airplane is an airplane. But you will indeed make a lot more money at a Major and it won't take 5, 10, or 15 years to reap that reward... more like 3.
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