It takes a long time to get there. You need thousands of flight hours and you need to have been at the same airline for a long time. Pilot perks, benefits, and

It takes a long time to get there. You need thousands of flight hours and you need to have been at the same airline for a long time. Pilot perks, benefits, and salary are all based on seniority. If you switch airlines, you start almost at the bottom again. It's not at all like software engineering where switching jobs is often the best way to get a salary boost.