Beans

Make every ALPA hiring mins and interview process the same. Cant tell me getting on at Spirit is even close to as tough as DL,UA,FDX. So what would happen is people would try to jump the line by going to the bottom feeders like Spirit. Many tried this in 2015/2016 by going to Spirit in hopes that the bog boys would call and they could jump the line of orher RJ guys. This imploded on them and I laugh about it now. Serves them rite!

FML666

What "line" are those RJ guys in?

king10pin02

could also prevent more experienced pilots from being hired. example: assuming 10yrs at spirit then go to Delta and Delta would have to pay 10yr pay instead of 1yr pay? Or was it 10yr at an alpa regional, should you go to 10yr pay? not saying i disagree just playing devils advocate

Silver02ex

I’m curious about this “line” too. Maybe they came to Spirit for a better QOL and didn’t want to stay at their shrinking regional.

AllOva736

Valid point but I disagree with the original question. Time with a company should buy you something IMO. If anyone wants to leave Spirit than great but they deserve nothing from the company that hires them besides a fair paying job and a free chance to prove their worth. That's like saying someone who spent 20 years in the regionals could get hired at Spirit and suddenly out rank most on the list. Stupid argument...

akulahunter

TBH, if you want to fix it, separate pay and seniority... make a pay scale banded by flight time ranges.
For example...
0-3000 pays x
3k-5k pays x
5k-7k pays x
Etc...

Figure a multiple for flight times if you need to use something as a base, assuming you think bigger is better (i.e. 737/A320 = 1.0xflt hrs, RJs = .9x, C172 = .7x, A380 = 1.3x, millennium falcon = 52x, etc) Have a seperate pay scale for CA/FO and give each band step raises per year (cuz not flying on reserve means not progressing up the scale). Make the numbers what you want, but make it similar to every other profession where your experience means something.

Note this has NOTHING to do with seniority. Newest guy in, means bottom of the heap. Your time at brand X means nothing to your new company or it's pilots other than recognizing your experience. (Which is why a National Seniority List is a terrible answer.)

squawkoff

Good point. Obviously I’m not good a “spit balling”!

king10pin02

sadly again encourages companies to hire lower time pilots

akulahunter

Sadly, still better than today where you can go from amazing to food stamps in a week. Also, if the entire industry was that way, there aren't enough low time pilots to fly ALL the planes. That hiring strategy would only work for so long...

Qotsaautopilot

You guys keep saying hired by different airlines.

Ideally ALPA would do the hiring with airline input and you are placed on a master seniority list. At that point you’d bid for a vacancy, say
FEDEX MEM 777 CA as your first choice and Mesa ORD CRJ200 FO as your last choice. The pay rates for equipment would be different but otherwise the contract and work rules would be the same. During vacancy bids you would be able to other fleets and if your seniority holds it.

Now, Lets say United needed to furlough 1,000 Pilots is where it would get tricky if there aren’t 1000 vacancies elsewhere. Preventing a massive training bubble across all airlines while also furloughing those most junior on the master seniority list even if they aren’t necessarily at united.

That would be the ideal setup that way it wouldn’t matter who you work for because you actually work for ALPA, you just happen to be holding Delta NYC 717 CA right now. You don’t have to worry if you are hitching your cart to today’s winner and tomorrow’s goat.