RJSAviator76

Caveman, you're senior to me... boogie on! Upgrade at United in 1 year and enjoy sitting reserve from home, never flying, having crew meals, not getting extended or rerouted or JA'd, wearing a hat and all that... or you can stay an FO and fly the Triple or the Sparky. This place sucks... so why not? Listen to Lew and Slip... they're grizzled wise owls and the living proof it only gets worse with seniority here. So the real question is why would you stay here?

That's my question for Lew... If it only gets worse with seniority, and I agree, the trips have indeed gotten worse - they are generally crap; if you really have no faith in SWAPA or this pilot group to bring home an industry-leading contract that's acceptable to you, and if you think the future is bleak at Southwest, why wouldn't you leave and apply elsewhere? Yes, you'll take an overall hit in system seniority, but you stand to tremendously improve your life because you'll have many choices - from narrowbody captain to widebody FO. I gotta say, I really admire the MCO captain who left. He voted with his feet So if he left for greener pastures and a vast improvement, and if this pilot shortage still persists.... and if you can get in the left seat and do much better than here... seriously, why not?

I'm not being a wise ass. I'd really like to understand. I've done homework for me, but what works or doesn't work for me doesn't apply to anyone else.

BTW... I'm also ready to strike.

Lewbronski

Ya, you are being a wise ass. Classic. "If you don't like it here, leave." Your act is so tired and old.

You're the guy who loves to tell people how much you love the suck and wants to tell other people to shut up or put up because, doggonit, you're tougher and smarter and you've got it all figured out (or something). It's all more than a little self-righteous.

Please go cross the street and take up a job with management, You're peddling the same tired, decades-old arguments that have kept our pilot group trailing in the dust to this very day. You'd be PERRRRFECT over there.

Which is all so weird because just a few months ago, you were as disgruntled as they come, attacking the Alaska pilots for ratifying their lackluster TA and venting here on our sub-forum. But then, I guess you waved the "Neuralyzer" in front of your face to wipe your cognitive faculties and restore you to your natural beyond-Pollyanna, like-it-or-leave state. So, I guess it's okay when you're down on this place. But when you're high on the kool-aid, we'd all better just leave and go somewhere else if we don't agree with you. Right? Oh no, you're just "honestly curious"? Ya. Got it.

And, BTW, while I admire the MCO captain who left as well, his wife owns an insurance brokerage and has a pretty massive IG audience, both of which provide immense financial security.

Is there an ignore feature on APC? Because your sanctimonious bullsh** has gotten as old, and as anti-pilot, as TSMITR’s sanctimonious bullsh**. And TSMITR also says he's ready to strike. Means a lot, doesn't it?

Here's my deal. I've explained it before in more than one post. I'm past V1. Deal with it. SMH.

Caveman

RJS
Just want better without the risks associated with a career change with some Seniority. But I did update a few profiles/apps without touching the submit button.

And I get it, the koolaide tastes good to you right now. Please do enjoy it.

MudhammedCJ

The Kool aid was sweet to a new hire just like it's sweet to the new Pollyanna captain. Congrats there, big fella.

flyguy81

Was talking to one of the office coordinators who does cruise bookings on the side today. CP overheard me and told me to call in sick to go on vacation. Lol…not sure you’d get that at DL, UAL, or AA.

Yeah, the schedules are regional airline-ish. Operationally, we’re a mess right now. I spent 10 yrs at a regional and this place is still night and day better. I’ve got a friend who just quit the regional after 21 yrs to come here just so he could drive to work again.

I work 13-15 days a month and don’t take any work home with me. For that, I get paid $300k…and that’ll go up a lot soon (hopefully).

We can do a lot better as a company…but it’s still a damn good job compared to some of our peers (they’re all f’d up in some way…UAL just had a July 4 meltdown so nobody is exempt).

RJSAviator76

No Lew, absolutely zero desire to work for management, but thanks for the vote of confidence. Personally, I think you're far better suited for it because all you've done is sowed FUD around these boards by $hitting all over our pilot group, the 1221, the new hires. I'm seriously waiting to see one motivating post from you about our pilot group, our NC or our SWAPA leadership. You've got nothing but FUD, hyperbole, and ChatGPT-like dissertations.

Judging by your posts, you and I are two completely different animals. See, unlike you and the rest of the "cool kids", I don't want to chase away every single person here, especially in this market. Instead, I want them here, educated about the past, and motivated about securing the better future. I want the best pilots we can hire; I don't want problematic, sketchy weirdos with an attitude who can't get hired anywhere else or fly their way out of a wet paper bag. I want our new hires educated about SWAPA history, about our successes, failures and shortcomings... because guess what, Lew? We're gonna get that industry-leading contract come hell or high water, and the aftermath is gonna be rather ugly if all we can recruit and retain are those sketchy problematic weirdos with skeletons. You want that? I don't. If that's koolaid to you, whatever floats your boat, man.

I already told you a number of times, you have a good message, but you lose people with your Chat GPT-like BS and your perpetual negativity. Like I said, you were all over this board literally $hitting all over the new hires, the 1221, SWAPA, the whole pilot group before the strike vote. In fact, all of you "cool kids" were jerking each other off with constant barrage of negativity, crapping all over our pilot group and SWAPA. Seriously man, if you are that miserable, that angry, that ****ed off, and with no faith whatsoever that we'll achieve a worthy contract, or have a decent future of this airline, and you're all telling everyone under the sun to go to Delta, United, American or wherever... why aren't you, especially considering the super fast upgrades there, going there, if nothing else, but to protect your sanity and mental health? With lightning fast upgrades at Delta and United, past V1? Maybe if you're 63, but whatever.

Also, tell me... where is it written that one must be a miserable wretch to be a good union member or back the union? Is wallowing in misery, engaging in silly hyperbole and being a condescending ********* to anyone who may disagree with you what makes a good union member in your mind? Seriously dude... grow up.


What koolaid? I'm just as sick of how this circus is running as any other shmoo, and I want the company to pay. But same question to you... is not allowing this circus to turn me into a miserable wretch the same as drinking the koolaid?

Same question... what koolaid?

JohnnyTexas

Here, hear! What RJS said. The perpetual whining wears thin.

Strike Ready.

SlipKid

LOL...... Don't put words in my mouth, err, keyboard. I've never said that life here gets worse as you get more senior, I've said that it doesn't get a whole lot better, and that's 100% true.

We all took a major QOL/pay hit with the 800 and 117, which is why our current QOL is far worse than it was when I was junior.

The biggest benefit of being senior here these days is the ability to manipulate my schedule to minimize my exposure to the complete goat rope that our operation has become, and to do it at premium pay more often.

As far as comparison to your legacy peers ..... Put simply, your life will get marginally better as you climb the list here, while theirs gets exponentially better.

FWIW, our schedules already sucked when you got hired. They're far worse now, and getting worse by the month, and that's before the reroute circus starts.

WRT to your response to Lew with the classic, old school Koolie mantra: "If you don't like it here then leave....", I'll say that if I were sitting anywhere in the bottom 50% here, with more than a decade to go, I'd have been gone, or seriously considered it, as soon as the unprecedented legacy hiring started a few years ago.

As it is, I am well past V1, (heck, I'm inside the FAF), sitting in the top 3% and drive to work. No way I could replace the income or QOL, (even with our s@!tshow of an operation), in the time I have left.

Cyio

Less than a year, but barely.
Yeah DL isnt on my radar.
Agreed and I may be doing its just as a form of mental therapy, as all but one would be a swap to a commute, something I swore I would never do again.
I dont know if I have that ability to leave either so dont give me much credit. I am just opening up my options and trying to secure them before its too late.

RJSAviator76

Slip, I don't disagree with anything you said here. In fact, I agree with just about everything you've said. My point is to stop spreading FUD about our union, about our future. If I were a manager like Lew has been suggesting I should be, that's PRECISELY what I would do. I would literally $hit all over our pilot group; my message would be how hopeless it is to resist the machine because the entire group is a bunch of "substandard-TA-yes-voting-koolies." Has it been historically? Yeah... we're negotiating against our former president... Talk about effed up scenario.... Do you see us negotiating against JW? JR? CM? MS? I don't... not by a long shot. I see a unified group with only 81 people who voted against the strike which is incredible. And "the cool kids" still $hit all over this pilot group...

Yes, traditionally the junior people tend to be the koolies... do you really think our junior people are koolies now? How about the 1221? Tell you what... I'm yet to meet a single guy here who even remotely bought off on the rates the company floated. In fact, I'm literally yet to see any junior FO saying they like them or would vote for them. Yet, "the cool kids" sh!t on all of these people and tell them to go to Delta. Seriously... dubya tee eff?!

Now... I'm not telling anyone "if you don't like it here, leave" in the classical way of "we'll never accomplish what you want... so if you don't like it, leave." That actually seems to be Lew's and "the cool kids'" schtick albeit slightly modified i.e. "go to Delta." But if that's your angle and approach to how to solve this impasse with the company, and it's to chase others away, I wholeheartedly disagree with that because we're gonna end up with problems down the road past this. And as you rightly state that things have been progressively getting worse (in many ways they have), that you have no faith in our pilot group or the union to change it while we're formally seeking release from mediation and actually go on strike, when you're chasing away, ridiculing and alienating anyone who says they are here for good, then why the hell don't you follow your own advice, practice what you preach, lead by example and apply elsewhere? Lew has been talking self help since he graced this forum with his presence.... and he STILL isn't happy that we're going down this path. In fact, he never stopped $hitting all over this pilot group spreading FUD about how we'll vote the first substandard turd and the associated misery.... Yeah, I have a problem with that. That's sowing negotiating fatigue and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Do you want that? I didn't think you did. Instead, the messaging should be encouraging, holding the line, and maintaining unity as we seek release from the mediation.

With respect to leaving... I have considered it myself. But then I looked a tad past the immediate upgrades and talked to some good friends. Delta has been hiring since 2014, and they've been hiring a lot of young FO's out of regionals vs. old RJ captains. Yeah, it's gonna get awfully stagnant there. Another good friend was hired at United right post-COVID... he's sitting at 70% master seniority there and he's been there roughly 2.5 years. That's thousands and thousands of young pilots who got on the property early on who will likely have a fantastic career. Those hired now may upgrade quick because most don't seem to want to be junior NB captains, but where will they top out? 35% master seniority? 45%? 55%? That's not WB captain territory... that's not promised land, and that's not nirvana. I could still have a fantastic narrow body CA career at a legacy, but does it make sense to leave, or does it make more sense to fight like hell to make this place shine where I'll finish in single digits percentage at retirement? That's the 30,000 view of my homework on leaving, but what works for me may not work for others. So as good as it may feel to fill out an app elsewhere, I'm not going anywhere. Instead, I'm building my strike fund. And I encourage my FO's to do the same. What I don't do is harangue them to go to someplace else. Instead, I share with them the thresholds for my yes vote, encourage them to not compromise, to not be afraid to vote NO as this is indeed the once-in-the-lifetime opportunity to get it right, and then direct them to where they can find more information to be better informed so they can be the ones to cast an informed vote reflecting what they want, and not "if it's good enough for so and so, it's good enough for me." If that's being a koolie and a Pollyanna in some people's worlds... oh well, whatever floats their boat.