Mag, herk, ect, what's your number? When is it too much? You say "where can a 45 YO pilot find a job making 80K? Next, you'll say "where can a 45 YO pilot find a job paying 70K, then 60K then 50K.... When will it end? Do you think if you give away the pension, that'll be the end? Then we will match FRNT and Airtrash. You guys probably have WAY more options than those guys. You think they'll say "where can an inexperienced 30 YO pilot get a job making more than 30K?" Where is the bottom? Where is YOUR line? Think maybe we can trade away the DB plan for a DC? How's that working at U? How long before they say "your 9% B-plan should be enough"? When will they then say "other airlines require a match, you guys need a 7% MATCHING 401K? What do you think the bottom feeding airlines will do then? "Oh, gotta compete with UAL, you guys are going to have to take a hit, but we'll grow...." and the cycle continues.
But there is a "glut of pilots" right? Simple supply and demand right? So what's going to reduce that supply? The 30 dollar hero's at an LCC gonna quit? So again, just what is another cascading bid down of the profession going to accomplish? When Valudeath put one in the Glades, a Capt made 40K and an FO made 20K. They cut EVERY conceivable corner. The folks performing MX in south Florida didn't even speak English.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98mar/valujet1.htm
The whole thing gets about two steps more offensive when a ******* whose sum total of airline understanding comes from a few hours he spends on a jet in a drunken stupor after plying his equally well paid profession of selling bulk underwear to JC Penny (he is a GED educated "marketing professional" after all), has the gall to tell ME what a pilot "deserves to make" or how "cush" the job is. You know what, you don't have a clue.
For the record, there ARE better paying jobs out there. I've got one, and I've turned a few others down. Quit crying and start preparing. If you are a UAL pilot, you rose to the absolute top of this profession. You jumped through more hoops and made more cuts than 99% of the population. You CAN do it again IF you put in HALF the effort you put forth to get to UAL. Does a "replacement" job have to even pay the same wages? How much of a W-2 cut is worth being home EVERY night? Sleeping in the SAME bed? Going to EVERY soccer game, EVERY "special event", seeing your kids faces EVERY Christmas morning, watching ALL of your favorite football team's games, going to church with your family EVERY Sunday, leaving the cell phone OFF and at home? how about not worrying about what you'll do if you lose an eye cutting grass, get a heart murmur, have a seizure, develop diabetes, or even simply PASS OUT twice in your life?
As to the ATSB and the industry. I think we are on the verge of reaching an "equilibrium" there is still some pain to be had at NWA and DAL, but this quarter will show that UAL and its competitors will have VERY similar performances. FRNT and ATA will likely have worse margins, and AMR will be very similar. SWA will report a VERY small profit, only due to hedging (not indicative of future performance. This is an essential next step. This will cause growth to slow at the LPC's and fare rationalization to slowly come back. UAL dumping its pensions would be DISASTEROUS for the stability of the industry. That's, by far, the largest item left. If UAL appears likely to outperform its LPC pals WITH the pensions, what will happen if they get dumped? What will FRNT, with VERY few owned jets and many firm orders coming, do? It WILL destroy them. What will AMR be forced to do? Is it a coincidence that they had to essentially undercut UAL's new rates to stay out of BK? What will they do if UAL cuts an ADDITIONAL $800 MILLION A YEAR? NWA? DAL? Even SWA is complaining about the revenue environment. Will these cuts allow UAL to "dump" more capacity on the system? Why wouldn't they? Some routes that didn't make sense before certainly will now.
