ALL airlines, including those darling pilots at Southwest, Airtran, and JetBlue have a minimum guarantee that a pilot gets paid, like I said, usually 75 hrs/month or so. No pilot would work if there was a chance he would make only 10 or 20 hours of pay per month! The only other option is to pay strict set salary's.....and have a strict, set amount of days/hours a pilot will work. But, even still, there will be pilots, on salary, collecting a check every month that may or may not fly x days or hours. It is just the nature of the business. Airlines need reserve pilots to back up in case of sick calls, crews stuck in other locations due to wx or mx. It is just reality. When I flew charter, I had a salary. Some months I flew 20 days, others only 8 or 10. The company still had to pay me the same. That isnt all that efficient to the bottom line either is it. But the fact remains......since pilots are only paid from chocks to chock, there has to be a compensation for sit time, or deadhead time. You cant control my life for 12-16 hours in a day, and only pay me for the 1 hour and 20 minutes gate to gate! Would you accept that sabre??? Remember, YOU are paid for EVERY hour that you are at work, from punch in to punch out!