duder

Compass just announced a LAX crew base opening up in February 2014 so I don't think the LAX-SFO shuttle is going to be shifting to mainline any time soon. In fact, more Compass flights to other destinations out of LAX (albeit ones already flown by other Delta Connection carriers) will be added next year.

scambo1

Find McDonalds and a diet coke

There are several standard places if you are going into one of the sightseeing areas. Your crew will tell you where they are.

As a general rule, if you get a little off track and hit some alleyway place, choose one where the cook has some really slack upper arms. It means she tastes everything she cooks.

DAL 88 Driver

Wanting something and actually setting out to achieve it can be two different things. Clearly, 100% of Delta pilots do not believe restoration is possible or that we should even be pursuing it. The majority in our MEC see it that way. Therefore, we have not been pursuing an objective of restoration. We've been pursuing an objective of some vague "improvement"... which by DALPA's tone and example clearly demonstrates that to mean "reasonable" improvements to bankruptcy as a new baseline.

A company the size and scope of Delta Air Lines has a lot of complex, moving parts. We (pilots) are but one small part in the grand scheme of things. In fact, if you look at ticket prices pilot costs are only a few bucks... probably less than the Starbucks coffee many passengers purchase in the terminal prior to boarding their Delta flight. Every decision management makes has some kind of effect, positive or negative, on cost, revenue, etc. It's not easy managing things that increase costs and/or decrease revenues... but that's something they have to do every day. Fuel costs go up dramatically... they adjust their business plan. Taxes go up... they adjust. More competition eats away at revenue... they adjust. There is no reason they could not adjust to increased pilot costs. And there is no rule in business that says employee costs at one company have to be similar to employee costs at another company. We make way more than 25% more than any of the regional airline pilots. What a competitive advantage those regional airlines must have! If we're going to use your argument, then it sounds like we need to be taking some more big pay cuts to bring us in line with the market's supply and demand for pilots... we make way too much money for our company to be competitive. Talk about a disastrous (for us) way of thinking!

We need about 48% more for full restoration. Let's say the typical pilot cost component of the average Delta ticket is $6. Adding 48% would add a whopping $2.88 to the average ticket price. Cry me a river... management would have such a hard time raising prices or adding fees to recoup $2.88 per ticket. Unless of course it was for something besides pilot costs. See, in the real world they have to adjust. In DALPA's bubble world, management doesn't have to adjust because they know they can con DALPA into believing it's just too hard. And they know DALPA will sell just about anything they come up with to this pilot group.

Free Bird

In other words, after everything this pilot group gave up in BK you think we should give more?

scambo1

DAL 88,
I agree with your logic / math on a 1 hour segment, but not on a 12 hour segment, although the same basic idea applies.

Additionally, fees work inversely. A $50 bag fee going ATL-HSV is a lot more onerous than a $50 bag fee going ATL-DXB.

Maybe a tip jar would help us.

Funding our retirements is also a hit which is not entirely accounted for. I'd view DAL funding our 401k's to the 415C limit a lot more favorably than a 10-15% raise. It also has the added benefit of not being a wall st concern.

gloopy

Interesting. CPZ, even post Trans States/Hulas, has been very conservative on domiciles. For an operation that small to open up a domicile out of nowhere like that is either bold forward thinking/risk taking or mother DL gave them some solid assurances. Maybe even a "vault letter"

LAX is so facility constrained WRT what we want/need to do there, its suprising that DL would commit to any DCI carrier there with the trend (at least for now) moving towards upgauging coupled with no sign DL has softened on its "portfolio concept" fetish of a bunch of different DCI carriers on every route to mitigate the one in a trillion chance of a regional strike.

DAL 88 Driver

That, by definition, is exactly what he, tsquare, and any number of DALPA officials and aficionados think.

DAL 88 Driver

That might not be such a bad idea. Let's do some back of the napkin math...

I'm going to say, on the MD-88 our average load factor (including the MD-90's) is 145. At an average of 3 legs per day, 16 days per month... that is 6,960 passengers for the month or 83,520 passengers for the year. Let's say each passenger tips us $7 (a little less than the tip one would leave the waiter for a $50 meal). We split it $4 for the Captain and $3 for the First Officer. That's $334K for the Captain for the year and $250K for the First Officer.

Kinda puts it into perspective doesn't it?

shiznit

With the new cap and reduction on RJ hulls that flying will have to come from somewhere else... So the 717 is backfilling in ATL/MSP/DTW.

Good, flying that was off list is coming back to mainline DAL.

BigGuns

Never have I firgured out that backdoor stuff.