TenYearsGone

I dont even know why we are salivating over SWA pay. We need to aim much higher. This airline environment we are in is "ripe" for making tons of $$$$. If our managers' aren't capable of taking advantage of this arena, they should be fired. Pilot pay/labor has never effected revenue creation or company financials, contrary to what MNGMT 101 sells.

We are worth much more than we think, especially with this "lurking" pilot shortage

TEN

forgot to bid

It's the funny thing, SWA pilots make $230K a year flying a 735, 733 and 737. Imagine what a 747 pilot at SWA with SWAPA as their union would make!

forgot to bid

Post that you want a 75% raise. Contract 2000 pay plus interest.

It helps bring out the capitulation crowd.

Same crowd hates if we mention SWA, except those who honestly believe SWA pay is too low. Which is a good thing.

TenYearsGone

I dont even think its a raise. It was a loan given, with force, to the company. And the interest, that to me is COLA..

Hopefully we value our careers and our sacrifices a little more, I think this company can/will kick the competitors A$$ and be very dominate even with our pilots making what they should make...Hopefully much more than SWA.

TEN

Carl Spackler

This is a huge point man. Last time, there were a lot of naive younger pilots who voted for the scope sales - but were confident because of the no-furlough clause. Everyone knows what absolute BS they are now. Last time, a minority of senior pilots voted for scope sales because they feared losing the company. A minority of mid seniority pilots voted for scope sales for probably the same reason. And a minority of junior pilots voted for scope sales confident in the no furlough clause. Now nobody believes we'll lose the company without scope sales...actually, just the opposite. And junior pilots know that no furlough clauses are worthless.

The company and ALPA have a huge hill to climb this time in convincing any portion of our seniority list that a scope sale is necessary.

Carl

Bucking Bar

You mean the smoky dive biker bar by Kroger's?

Should I bring my guitar? What time you guys getting started? More importantly, should we bring ear plugs?

Of course if it is an MD88 tribute band, it needs to play Bowie or Manfred Mann. Stuff that makes no sense and has confused orientation.

ITSALLGOOD

A merger in the next 3-5 years is almost certainly coming, but JBLU is not even a possibility. We already cover just about everything they do and have the eastern half of the US, carribean and Latin America suitcased. The merger coming will be something that improves our west coast and Pacific route structure. Organic growth out there would be waaaaayyy too expensive. It is a low yield market with AA, UAL, LUV, and AS all firmly entrenched and saturating the region. A merger is the only way to improve our presence beyond code share without some major changes to our fleet. A West Coast push is coming in 2013/2014 when the Big New York projects are complete and the debt has been reduced to an acceptable level. We are already buying up advertising rights to sporting venues and teams in LA and we have the contract for the Angels' Charter.

AS would be very expensive, and we really only need about 2/3 of their flying. Mostly just their up and down the coast stuff. We have all their Hawaii and most of their transcon routes already covered. That said, we have been slowly but deliberately aligning our operations at SEA and LAX. AS would be great for the company (pilot value would depend on the SLI) if the right set of circumstances present themselves...for now, I think DAL is happy with a very tight code share. Chance of merger 50%

HA is just about a no brainer. They could be bought for relatively little cost, provide more access to the Asian markets and would make us the undisputed king of the Hawaii market from Central Asia to the East Coast. This would give us the ability to control capacity in a market that has been notoriously saturated and low yielding...a marriage of DAL/HA could change that. They also bring the 717 on property and that alone is a great incentive to pursue an even larger fleet to make them more economical. The 717 is the perfect jet for entry into competetive West Coast Markets and could make organic growth there possible. It is highly effecient on short routes and is low capacity but much roomier than an RJ. As for SLI...they have 533 pilots who are mostly living and based in HNL with a mere handful in SEA. A reasonable SLI could be worked out quickly. I really don't see many of them suddenly commuting 2600 miles to fly the 73n in LAX or 4200 miles to take anyones 7er seat in ATL. Chance of HA merger in 3-5 yrs...75%

Check Essential

I'm not so sure, Carl. History says otherwise.
ALPA keeps giving away scope and selling it with enhanced furlough protection.
Remember Moak's grievance settlement that allowed the extra 76 seat jets?

That was a straight up deal to give the company another 26 large RJs in exchange for more no furlough language. It was just 2 years ago.

Here's the settlement, lest we forget:

• The Company will agree to the Association’s interpretation of Section 1 B. 40. d. and e. but (ALPA) provides a one-time exception to this interpretation allowing the Company to operate up to 153* 76-seat jets so long as the Company does not furlough any pilot on the integrated system seniority list as of February 9, 2009, the date the agreement was signed.
...

• If the Company does furlough any pilot on the Integrated System Seniority List, then the Company will physically remove six passenger seats from the number of 76-seat jets (in service, undergoing maintenance and operational spares) that exceeds the authorized number of 76-seat jets under the Association’s interpretation of Section 1 B. 40. d. and e.

The company knew there wasn't going to be any furloughs. So what's the bottom line? They got their 26 extra DCI jets and what did we get? Another no furlough clause.

Carl Spackler

That's just not the case NERD. When NWA purchased Republic in 1986, that merger went straight date of hire. You sure couldn't have said that any merger going forward will also use date of hire. The merger with Delta is proof of that.

Bottom line is that arbitrators are free to do whatever they want. Including ignoring all past precedent. Don't ever forget that.

Carl

Check Essential

He wrote that while trying to read the wet compass through 2 mirrors.