American Pilots Will Be Making Bank This Holiday Season

I'm not anti-union but the pilots unions are pure evil greed. All I hear from my airline colleagues is that they are extremely difficult to work with and greedy. Eventually they will bankrupt more airlines again.

Good on them. American messed up big time. This is on them 100%

@Jason — the counter-argument is that historically labor has suffered disproportionately in downturns, with furloughs, layoffs, pay cuts, pension evaporation, etc. this while c-suite leaders enjoy golden parachutes. So, they strangle today, knowing they may get strangled tomorrow.

By no means do I mean it's right/fare/smart. But it's taken two parties to tango in the labor-relations cluster-f*ck.

Don't pilots only get paid for actual flying hours? And there's a limit on how long they can fly at one time, right? So, it's probably closer to $5,000 instead of the $11,000 for the flight from DFW to HKG. Still pretty good though.

Haters gonna hate.

It's been awhile since I have reviewed the APA contract but I believe in the past there was a "duty time" rate for each flight, that was set at the beginning of each rating period when the bid went out which was paid at the full rate and eligible for "remedy pay," and then there was the "rest" rate which was calculated based of off how much duty time was spent in the cockpit but was most notably expected from most of the bonuses. This was the pay rate used for time spent in the crew rest. If it is still this way, then they would be clearing much much less than 11,000 for this leg.

Pilots on get paid the full hourly pay when they are on-duty flying. So the 17 hour HKF-DFW is only 8 hours at full pay the rest is per diem.

That is a lot of money. Granted less than 1% of AA pilots are 777 Captains that will be flying DFW-HKG during the holidays, most pilots will be looking at much less than that.

Doug Parker made over $32,000 every single day in 2016. All 365 of them. Or $3,150 an hour, assuming he works 10 hours a day, every single day of the year.

Because he took zero salary, a lot of that compensation will be at a lower tax rate than the pilots.

But lets whine about the union. LOL

How about the NFL commissioner who wants $50 million a year and lifetime use of a private jet? The union folks aren't asking for crazy money.

AA flight attendants only make a fixed rate of $75 extra for the entire day for holiday pay.

AA pilots don’t receive holiday pay as it’s not a part of their contract

@Mark F. Not all management earns as much as Mr Parker...

Is it too soon for newly coined AA marketing phrases?

"AA - Come fly into the ground with us!"
"AA - Well paid and still unhappy!"
"AA - Dropping cash anywhere we can!"

@Airways and Travels; I am aware of that. I just thought I would put the compensation in perspective for those who immediately scream about how greedy the union and the pilots are.

@Ryan that’s wrong. They get paid the block time of the entire flight.

-an airline pilot

So a flight attendant is supposed to be happy to work the holiday for what amounts to be 1 extra hour of flight pay before taxes (provided they're topped out) even though they could be gone for days.... No wonder they need hundreds on reserve-

Dana and Ryan you are both incorrect. We get paid from release of parking brake to setting it. The entire time the aircraft is under our command.

Sitting at jetway with door open..nope
Sitting out on taxiway B2 waiting for a release time...Yes
Sitting in bunk during my FAA required rest break...Yes
Van on Waylon hotel...nope

This is strictly US policy. Overseas have different pay structures

Also this really isn’t about greed. It’s about following the contract both parties agreed to. The have a team of lawyers who micro analyze every aspect of a contract before agreeing. If the shoe was on the other foot (union mistake of some kind) I guarantee you that management would hold the collective pilots’ feet to the fire.
Doug Parker said American will never lose money again. So it is on him.

The airline offers time and a half which is more than fair. Many many pilots accepted that, only then did the union make them pay more. If 1.5X was enough to entice more pilots to work, then there's no need to pay more, except for greed.
I'm not willing to accept the "they took a pay cut during bad times"... their extreme pay was what was one of the causes of bankruptcy.
Also, yes they have lives in their hands. So do the flight attendants, the dispatchers, the cargo loaders, surgeons, bus drivers, every driver on the road, nurses, maintenance workers, etc etc. Yet, pilots think they own the airlines. It's one huge team that makes an airline work, yet the pilots are probably more than 60% of the total payroll at airlines, yet are less than 20% of the workers.
I still stand with my comment about "Greed".

@Jason, you are entitled to your opinion, no matter how wrong it is.