EmailKid

Well, sign on bonus and end of 1st year bonus seem to be added to "yearly" salary

I realize there is a regional airline pilot shortage, but I find it hard to believe that salaries would have gone from $20K per year for First Officer just a couple of years ago or so @:-)

findark

Yeah, they're playing a lot of tricks to make it sound like regional FOs make a lot more than they do.

LarryJ

The problem with the bonuses, that most regional airlines are currently offering, is that they aren't in the contract so they can change or go away at any time. They're pretty good right now but they don't (yet?) represent a permanent change to regional airline compensation.

The compensation levels mentioned for major US airlines don't seem to be made by anyone who understands what happens in actual practice. Compensation varies quite a bit from pilot to pilot based on how the pilot bids. Many make more than what is listed while others make less.

EmailKid

Really?

That's fascinating, I would have thought that you are paid by the plane you fly and if you sit in right or left seat.

I'd love to hear more if you are able / permitted to spill the beans.

TomMM

Can't comment about pilot pay but back in 2004 I knew a flight instructor who went to China to teach. The pay was better than what he earned here but the students were, according to him, "scary". He came back after a year, got a job at a regional and now flies for AA.

mduell

They're hourly employees. If you fly the full 1000 hours you make more than if you take the minimum.

LarryJ

The hourly pay rate is based on aircraft, seat, and longevity. I'm a third-year 737 F/O so I get the same hourly pay as any other third-year 737 F/O. (There is a difference within the category like 737-700 being a bit less than the 737-800/900 but that's relatively small).

If I'm on reserve I get a minimum monthly guarantee of 73 hours. Many reserves don't exceed the minimum so are paid just 73 hours.

If I'm a line holder I have a minimum guarantee of 70 hours but most line holders will exceed the minimum. I bid for more time off so am typically about in the mid-70 hour range. If I wanted to work more I could easily push my credit up into the high 80s, if not higher. I commute so having a commutable line is more important than having high-time trips. People who live near their base are also more likely to take advantage of premium pay trips or senior manning (when the company is short they so designate trips offering more pay to those pilots who pick them up).

EmailKid

Wow, thanks a lot, I find that quite fascinating. Never knew there was so much to it.

eeflyer

Apparently "747" is too short of a term to search for, so sorry if this question has come up before.

With the retirement of the 747-400s, what are the captains/FOs for those aircraft doing? I would guess that a small subset would retire, but are others being trained for a specific type such as 777s or 787s? Do pilots get the option to state preferences for typing?

goalie

Bolding mine: When searching for a three letter term such as aircraft type, airport code and etc, if you search with a "*" after it (i.e. "747*"), you should get results

clubord

The B747 pilots displaced are all bidding onto other aircraft. Most sticking with B777 or B787 because they pay the same as the B747.

Bidding to the B737, A320, or B756 would be a significant pay cut for most. Unless one is going to that fleet for QOL issues I’d be hard pressed to think any of the B744 pilots will bid down to those fleets.

eeflyer

Oh okay, thanks for the tip!

Ah so it is a bidding process, makes sense since that and seniority seem to be how a lot of things are determined. Since 767s are also larger widebodies, are they in that first group as well?

QOL meaning being able to go home at night? My understanding is that pilots for the smaller jets fly in/out of their home base and get to go home most nights while long-range aircraft pilots do not get that luxury, but get more days off in a period.

Thanks for the reply as well!

clubord

Correct, everything we do is based in bidding. Vacations, monthly schedules, training dates/times, etc. F/As have a similar system for their functions as well.

The B763 is NOT included in the wide body pay rates per the last pilot contract. For those of us in the B756 community it's a big sticking point, I'd expect that to change in the next contract cycle.

QOL meaning exactly that; some pilots don't like the wear and tear on the body of international flying and prefer to stay within a time zone or two. There are turns (1 day trips EWR/MCO/EWR for example) that some pilots like doing, those are mostly the local guys/gals that don't commute.

Me personally I don't care for those, I prefer the long haul flying where I work 6-7 days and am home 5-6 days at a time. As you can see...to each their own.

Hope that helps explain things a bit better.

freshairborne

I have the seniority to fly anything we have from any base (that happens because you get seniority as you get old) but I choose to stay flying the Airbus from my base that happens to be 30 minutes from my house. I will not bid anything bigger (read higher hourly rate) because I don’t want to commute to be less senior and fly all-nighters, which virtually every international trip is.

I will serve my last two years of my sentence as a narrow-body captain and earn 30% less, but I will not be time zone whacked, fly junior trips, and sure as heck won’t spend five weeks more training on new equipment than the six days I owe this company in the Puzzle Palace.

Ah, the good old days, when my job offer from United was $1,854.25 per month ($23.77/hour x 78) to be a pilot for the biggest airline in the free world. The only two years of my life when I qualified for food stamps. (I worked as a car mechanic on the side, so didn’t need the stamps).

FAB

physioprof

Do you regret choosing this career?