mdot

Well, some hope to not get called at all.

skytrails

All these millennials crack me up thinking they should get bigger and bigger pay checks but not wanting to put in any effort what so ever in their job. Its a JOB people. working conditions at a JOB aren't always all sunshine and rainbows. Blows my mind people are doing everything in their power to NOT upgrade. Maybe its a good thing actually since the thought of these kids being in the left seat is scary as hell.

Maybe a lot of you should have went for a different career. Everyone has to pay their dues at some point in this career. For a lot of you it'll be in the left seat instead of the right like it used to be for everyone.

Pedro4President

Why is it that if an FO bids reserve he is hurting pilot group but if the company misuses 15G4 it's ok?? 15G4 was to fill an unused vacancy in reverse seniority. 15G4 doesn't give the company the ability to force FOs to upgrade when they have a 1000 hours. But that's a different story.

An FO bidding reserve to avoid upgrading is NOT hurting the pilot group and is just following the contract to maximize their QOL. Everyone does what ever they can in order to maximize their QOL. It's like blaming pilots that DTS their vacation this summer on exacerbating the staffing issue this summer.

EmbaeDriver

I agree. These ****erz want money, flight benefits without working...

SVCS

If a pilot decides to bid for reserve they must have their reason, no need to insult them...
In my case I live in base and I bid reserve, I am home almost every night of the month and credit about 100 hrs a month. Why would I bid a line? To credit 72 hrs? Thanks but no thanks! My suggestion is if you dont like that then make sure you talk to the union and vote for it when the time comes instead of talking Cr@9 about millenials like we are stupid. I guess I could say the same thing about Geneation X!!!

Squirrel27

This divisiveness between the old guard and the new is not good for the pilot group as a whole. We should be happy for the PPs, as they have put up with more than their fair share of crap and have earned the right to flow long ago. More selfishly, it gets the PPs out of the way for those of us who came in later.

At the same time, the PPs have to take a look inside and see that at least some of them would have held off on an upgrade for improved quality of life, for at least some period of time, if they had been given the chance. Upgrade used to be 5-7 years or more; maybe some of those people wouldn't have wanted the upgrade in 6 months or less. It just wasn't an issue back then, so they didn't have to confront it. This doesn't mean that all millennials now are lazy or selfish or whatever. It just means that they're putting the health of their family's lives before the company, which is absolutely correct to do. This is just a job, and family always comes before job. Everyone's situation is different, and if bidding reserve will keep the significant other happy for a little while, that is important.

The real boogie man we should all be looking to is the company, not realizing that times have changed and if they really want a 100% upgrade rate without reduced moral, they're going to have to incentivize the upgrade more. This new agreement helps. But for the old guard to look at the newer pilots and say that them wanting more to upgrade is selfish doesn't help anyone. Times are different right now than they were when a 7 year upgrade existed. The group is absolutely right for wanting gains now. Make the gains while we can, because the next economic downturn and concessionary contract that comes with it us just around the corner.

NoValueAviator

The divide kind of makes sense when you look at it from the top down. A protected pilot has demonstrated a willingness to accept the worst the airline industry has to offer for many years on end, whereas a 2016 hire walked in the door and held a line a month after IOE in Dallas on the 175. He wouldn't have even sent in a resume if he thought it was conceivable that he could have the type of ride a PP did. Totally different baseline expectation.

daveetasac

Yep, it makes sense. Times have changed. Us PPs saw what the 824 went through, so it seems a bit snotty how some junior pilots have reacted. I get it, though, and think gains should be sought after for the whole group in the form of pay and schedule improvements.

mdot

The vast majority of PPs were hired at American Eagle Airlines, the largest regional in the world, and the only one doing AA's regional flying. We had an 18 year contract in place that was very competitive. We had 7 bases, and in 2010-2011 we were hiring like crazy. It was somewhat similar to how you talk about a 2016-hire in terms of this being a decent place to be. Enter BK and the USAir takeover and even in the face of (very real) threats to "Comair" us, we still said no to concessions. PSA comes along and stabs us in the back, and we suffer 5 base closures, a concessionary contract, airplanes going to PSA, and a whole bunch of stuff that saw a 3,300 strong pilot group whither down to around 1800 or so.

This is all around the time Pinnacle voted in one of the worst contracts imaginable. The world was a much different place, and we did what we could to make it through the rough times. But this industry is cyclical. We'll see if you're right about that 2016-hire come the next downturn. But something tells me they too will "demonstrate a willingness to accept the worst", if god forbid this industry even vaguely resembles what it did just 6 or 7 years ago.

Ijustlikeflying

You do realize the majority of our pilot group is millienals, maybe even yourself. The “millienals,” are 22 to 37 years old. I wouldn’t call them kids haha. Most of them have a set of kids themselves. The rest of you grandpas need to calm down. There’s probably less than 30 FOs at the airline actively avoiding captain bids. Just looking at all the reserve lists there’s only a few pilots per base/equipment who bid reserve on purpose. And who’s to say they only do it to avoid captain bids. They may just do it because they like the time off at home with their “kids” haha. For example there is only two fo’s in the MFE postion who purposely bid reserve...