Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Recall?

So, we've known that CAL recalled 15 pilots for a week or two now:  Article
It is anticipated and rumored that ALL of the furloughed CAL pilots will be recalled in the next couple months.  What does this mean for us?  Well, we will have a decision to make.  Take the recall or not take it. 
Here's kind of how it breaks down:

CAL
Pros-
1.  If he goes back, he'll almost immediately be at second year pay, which is about double first year CAL pay (and like 3 times current airline pay), and that alone will probably be worth taking the recall.
2.  Better working conditions at CAL.
3.  Better planes!
4.  We might go ahead and try to have a baby finally.

Cons-
1.  Zero guarantee that he keeps his job.  We fully anticipate that once the merger with UAL happens, it's possible or even probable that he may get furloughed again.  If that happens, we have no idea what he'll do and could be back in awful furlough limbo again, with not much hope of ever going back to CAL/UAL, assuming he's bumped by UAL guys.
 2.  If he leaves current airline, he's probably burned that bridge forever and will not be able to come back.  That's pretty much how it works in the airline industry.
 3.  He might get based in Guam.  It's the junior base and right now that's what they are offering to recalled CAL guys.  haha!  Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah....

So, I'm not sure what I think.  I know his current airline is not where he ultimately wants to be, but he actually does have one thing there- relative job stability.  Well, more than he'd have at CAL anyway.  Stability in aviation is a relative term, right?  The problem with his current gig is the pay is SO LOW.  I don't know if we can ever start a family on what he's making right now, and the pay scale sucks.  It would take forever for him to make much more there. 
I just think CAL is a big gamble and he stands to lose everything AGAIN if he takes the recall.  We'd really just have to bank as much of his income as possible if he went back and was making good money again, knowing he might lose his job again.
His other strategy is to try to get hired at another airline all together.  He's still working on that, and if he got hired at another good, relatively stable airline, that could solve all our problems.  Maybe (yeah, like it's that easy...lol).
So that's what's going on with that.  He still probably won't get recalled for a couple months, but we're already thinking about everything and playing out scenarios.  We'll see what happens...

5 comments:

Jen said...

Wow, that's nuts. Not an easy decision! Please don't move to Guam!

Joanna said...

what is his ultimate goal? To fly mainline? Then go to CAL! Yes, careers are about taking risks, especially when it comes to aviation. Go for it! Hey, and if he is based in Guam move there! Live it up! :)

Brittney said...

The ultimate goal is for him to be flying, making a good living ($$), have some job stability, so that we can start a family. We really have no desire to move to Guam, and my job isn't that flexible, so I don't think that's a real option. If he got based in Guam, we'd probably have a long distance marriage until he could hold a base in the states again... I don't know, we'll have to see how things play out and figure it out.

Rachel said...

If they call him back and offer Guam only, can Greg by pass this call back? That way he still has his number at CAL and still has a job flying for now too. Just a thought?
Or if he could get based back in the states quickly take Guam for a month or two.

Brittney said...

Good point Rachel. By-passing the recall is something we've considered too- I forgot to mention that. The thing with Guam is that we think the pilots that accept that as their base will have to stay there about 18 months before they can up and go to another base. It actually may end up working to his advantage if enough furloughed guys senior to Greg take the recall and fill up the open spaces in Guam and have to stay there a while- then he may get lucky and just have EWR or IAH as possible bases.

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