Originally Posted by
Newhairdo
Most American pilots commute to their base too. Sure, they get paid way more, but they get furloughed more too. And the market is totally different, with several “premier” carriers. It’s been a while since I’ve heard anyone claim that QF is a premier carrier. That made me laugh, but I get your point.
I wonder how ‘normal’ (ie non QF pilots) people in Sydney and Melbourne manage to get by on lower wages. How does that work for them?
Fair points, but you get want I'm getting at re Qantas generally speaking being the pinnacle of the Aussie pilot career. The US is far from perfect, but that doesn't invalidate my criticism of the current standard of compensation in Aus. You also don't have to look much further than Tiger, Bonza or Rex to see that furloughs can happen to anyone.
As for "normal people" and their earnings. They don't launch into the sky with $1B worth of liability every day. Nor are their careers threatened every 6 months with check rides, or every year with medicals. Nor do they spend their 20s out in the desert flying 40 year old death traps for peanuts to finally get a sniff at something resembling the peak earning potential of their career.
This is one of my few criticisms of Australian culture, is the desire to cut everyone down to be average like everyone else. I don't think Australian pilots are average by any stretch. The career path is uniquely difficult, and I think the top jobs should be on parity with their global peers. There's nothing really special or different about Qantas compared to the US legacies, save that Qantas has the absolute lion's share of market capacity in Australia compared the their US counterparts.