Myboyblue

I'm not trying to rub salt in any wounds just trying to understand the mindset here. After all this time (15 years) I would have figured any UAL pilot still on furlough and not at another major meant they were involved in something else. I have buddies at S.West who have been there less than 4 years who are now on there way to prosperous careers.

It just seems like there had to be some opportunities over the last 15 years to try to get a sr. number in the hat of another carrier but then again I don't understand the whole myth of having to give up your number to do it.

dosbo

Once furloughed it can be difficult to maintain the currency that is generally required (200 or so hours in the last year) when applying to other major airlines, particularly when over the past decade there has been little movement to the majors.

Going from a major, where even at the bottom of the list there is a future you can plan on, to a regional or 135 with no discernable future or income opportunities is not very palitable. After my 2008 furlough I spent a year at a 135 operation flying light twins , and finally came to the conclusion that I could not support my family and maintain currency waiting for a different major to begin hiring. I considered the Skywest and Republic offers and decided, with my wife, that the quality of life hit for the pay just was not worth it.

I am still flying just not fixed wing and am slowly working on a different future in the event the JCBA tubes. In the meanwhile I doubt I will be fixed wing current again untill a recall. It's just too expensive to my family and they have sacrificed too much.

So with all that said I can very easily see how some one could be furlouged for the 12 out of 15 years. It is very difficult to move backwards to an unsustainable lifestyle flying at a regional, 135, or flight instructing after spending so much already to secure a major 121 position.

skyslug

I also considered the Republic thing but I can not justify the pay! I am currently flying (technically) so I'm staying sort of current. I really feel for the 15 year folks with 12 years on furlough. That sux!

Sonny Crockett

It VERY hard to get the "United Stink" off of your resume. Lots of Pilot Recruiters have a hard on for UAL pilots. Also the resign your number thing......


I'm just saying.

oldmako

Where is TMA when you need them??

dvhighdrive88

Ain't that the truth. Turned down at two national carriers over the very same.

One thing to be furloughed. Quite another to be stigmatized because your furloughed from a particular airline.

I know we all "gotta pay the furlough dues", but this is ridiculous.

Certainly hope the supposed pilot drought is real with Age 65. Wouldn't hurt my heart any to see some of the smug recruiters, aircraft owners and the like I've had to deal with scrambling for a decent pilot.

I think it's beginning. Some of the Asian carriers are revamping cadet programmes and really cranking up the pay for experienced people. Looks like the Middle East is heating up as well. A good friend just got hired direct into the 777 at Emirates wirth no experience in the airplane.

One things for sure and I hope it's the same for others; I think in a few years the people I've dealt with on furlough will be hard pressed to get a resume like mine on their table and they can work their way down from there.

EWRflyr

Not sure I understand this. Everyone was recalled on the last bid in September/October. We have no one left to recall and there are no new pilot positions on this bid. All this bid does is move pilots around the CAL system.

EWRflyr

Get us through until mid-December 2012 and age 65 retirements will get this moving fast. I know that means about two more years of this stagnation for the UAL-N and UAL-S pilots, but I am hopeful our careers will accelerate once again.

A320

Thank that young RJ captain you routinely see on the cover of ALPA magazine. You may get to thank him in person when you fly with him. Then again maybe he will be thanking you.

Dr Douglas 8

What does S.West mean? Is that code for Skywest or Southwest?

In the airline business today, 4 years with any major airline is still a newbie. Your buds with promising careers could easily be out of work pretty fast and find the next ten years of their life after "the event" will involve a massive emotional rollercoaster ride. They will hear a lot of talk like, "you are almost back on property, it will be this summer". But that's just scary talk, what am I doing trying to scare everyone...

But here is what some went through though if you must know. Years flew by pretty quickly for some, as one stopgap measure after another was attempted to move on in a way, but move on with dignity and a life for their families. Not only did they feel the near (false) recall but so did everyone else and the furloughees were sometimes hard pressed to find a good job in the aviation business that did not hold their previously enviable job and accomplishments against them.

Anyone with a "promising career" at a major airline is in jeapardy. A 2 year newbie at Delta to a 4 year newbie at any other major to a senior captain at another who's airline is lucky enough to be picked off. A union bust maneuver or terror disaster can make the once untouchable recently unemployed. Any hickup or oil at 100+ a barrel and you get the idea. This ride in aviation is largely luck and circumstances. Sure, we have to work hard but with seniority being the way it is, a lot rides on luck and how things turn out 25 years after you say "I Do" to the airline you chose or who chooses you. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either trying to scam you, or they are a fool.

Another perspective.

Once a person "pays their dues" and scrapes and crawls their way up the chain and "makes it" to the major airline ranks, then life tends to evolve more around family and life itself.

It's very much understandable, and highly likely, that many are unwilling to go back and replicate (start at a regional again) the previous 10 years of financial struggle for some sort of promised career that:
1) they already earned twice over, and
2) they have already had snatched from them, and
3) with hindsight experience and knowledge of the previous 2 items, and
4) the hindsight and knowledge that life is a lot more about life than a job, especially if the prospects are crap in one particular career field.

Many furloughed pilots chose to go into lucrative careers in search of a nice life, based on their education, smarts, ability to succeed - back in the military, the corporate aviation segment, other industries (engineering, marketing, sales, finance, several who I know are now practicing doctors and lawyers).

Some guys, even with the knowledge of what has become of this business, still feel the call of the wild. Some mistakenly think of their jobs like they were when they were happy, and might not be fully emotionally over a major airline pilot job that just is not the same as it once was. But they still remember it as being something they miss. So some are willing and able to come back to UAL because they know they just want something like this to get them back into the saddle. This isn't everyone, just a few who I know.

There are a thousand other perspectives. 2144 perspectives to be exact. Many won't touch UAL with a 2144 foot long pole, while others are ready to ask "how high" on the way up. Some will be the biggest UAL cheerleaders possible and may be the key to a fresh perspective that will make UAL great once again. Some will come back and will leave in disgust a few years later. You can't broad brush reply to such a question, it is very complicated.