tsquare

Blue: Exactly my point. hockey thinks that chasing the money to SWA will put him in a better position. Personally, I think he is blinded by the glint of sunshine off his colleagues shiny new car, and that fuels his jealousy. (Again, I think that is incredibly sad on his part)

Red: I disagree. And I am not going to argue the point here. It is my opinion, and we will see in a few years who is correct. I do know this... in the merger world, 1+1 does not = 2. Never has.. never will.

newKnow

If that's not the point ts is trying to make, I'll do it.

Ask the "over 60" 727 s/o I flew with in 1998 who left American in the 60's to go to Braniff. If he had stayed at AMR, he said he would have retired #1. But, he said at the time leaving American to go to Braniff was a no brainier.

When I got hired in 1995, United was the place to go. People were leaving everywhere to go to United for years. Many of those pilots are still furloughed.

I'm sure there are tons of stories out there just like that that involve different airlines.

tsquare

eeeeeeeee yup^^^^^^^

DAL 88 Driver

I think he's just looking at the FACT that the average F/O at SWA is making over $140K (more than I made as a Captain last year!) and not working any more days than the average F/O at Delta. Will that disparity continue into the future? Who knows? But I do know that GK's letter indicated he was interested in a "productivity" solution and not pay cuts. So what if they have to work an average of 13 to 14 days instead of the 12 days they average now? And with us... we currently have a union that's acting as if our contract is a new baseline from which to negotiate traditional improvements. Unless our line pilots wake up and force a change (whether that's DPA or somehow forcing ALPA to change), it's not looking very promising that we're going to significantly close that gap between current Delta pay and current SWA pay.

Man, aren't we all painfully aware of that!

I hope you weren't one of those guys that thought we had to do a merger to be "too big to fail and have a seat at the bailout table." That proved to be a bunch of crap. And now we're all stuck with a shrinking airline and backwards movement.

tsquare

I would have rather remained a stand alone DAL. It is what it is though. I am optimistic that we will close the gap on SWA pay. I am still not optimistic that we will see C2K rates however, because of AMR and the obama economy, but we will have to wait and see.

Hockey can look at that "fact" all he wants. Being jealous and envious of simple bling though will drive him crazy. I'll tell you this too. I'd trade places with him in a NY second, but I have ZERO interest in trading places with the number 1 captain at SWA... Someday when he grows up, he will realize that he is in the best place he could be.. if he stays here.

GK's letter is hilarious. It has gotten more speculation about what is going on there, yet it really said nothing. If I didn't think he was such a scumbag, I would think he did it just to spool up the forums and have a little fun.

Boomer

But Delta could sell Comair and then you wouldn't be stuck with a shrinking airline and backwards movement.

Wait a minute...

DAL 88 Driver

FYI, to completely close the gap we would probably need greater than C2K rates (unless you are meaning + inflation). Our 2004 (C2K) 12 year MD-88 Captain rate was $237.37. At 80 hours per month, that translates to $227,875.20... still below the average SWA Captain.

orvil

I really think we are underestimating the influence of this forum in evaluating any new T/A. The last real give and take was in 2000. The DALPA message board was in its' infancy.

While there are just a few active posters on both boards, there are many, many lurkers. Take an informal poll at work. Say something about "underboob" and see if there is a response. (That has got to be the greatest code word ever invented. I can see it at a disciplinary hearing, "Are you aware of the existance of 'underboob'? Why, I have no knowledge of the incident, sir.")

Anyhow, once the T/A is presented to us, I fully expect that it will be completely taken apart, sliced, diced and pounded by a bunch of us from every possible angle before the first day passes. We will have all the information necessary to completely evaluate it's value, either good or bad. There shouldn't be any areas that are nebulous. We will have a really good idea of its value pretty quickly.

The power of information is just too great. No one group will have an exclusive lock on information. DALPA and the Company will have a very difficult time spinning things. Saying, just trust us, won't cut it any more.

orvil

Are you finished with trade day, or just taking a break?

I'm done. Time for a drink.

acl65pilot

Very good point.