It will be an interesting and painful process to see (from both sides of the aisle). Let's just hope for both our sakes that level heads prevail. I think you'll find in the end that most of the guys/gals at SWA will shake your hand and welcome you to what will be 'our' company. The last thing we want to see is animosity down the road similar to our friends at US Air East and West. Setting aside the seniority boondoggle we find ourselves in, this acquistion (in my opinion) opens up a lot in terms of growth for both our pilot groups. As we all know, a seniority negotiation won't be successfull unless both sides walk away p!ssed off. Sad but true.. See ya at the bar.. Cheers..

Patch

Whats your idea of fair then? Nice to see we will atleast be getting those hypocrites. Probably most got turned down or didnt get interviewed. I know they never applied here. I guess money and lots of it can buy happiness for some. Your CEO was singing another tune on your growth and future plans, but that was probably for negotiations. I read the orders. Whippy do. Everyone has planes on order. Means nothing until they are flying. Patch, I couldnt agree more. Both need to be ticked the same. SWA guys have more to lose, not very much if anything to gain.

Dont give me some garbage about ATL or International. What do you give in senority, pay benefits, qol? Pretty easy to answer those. Sorry for the harshness. It will work out in the long run. Then we will all be on the same team, hopefully dominating.

Partly for negotiations, partly because growth in Atlanta was difficult competing directly with Delta.

That's one of the reasons AirTran has been increasingly moving away from hub-and-spoke and concentrating on international growth out of Orlando and the MKE growth. Those two segments of growth were going gangbusters and were making the majority of our profit.

That continued path of growth away from ATL is doing just fine, all Bob's posturing aside (hence the consistent profits for over a decade). So he was telling the truth - from a certain point of view (i.e. trying to dominate ATL).

"Remember, you're going to find that our beliefs depend greatly upon our point of view." (bonus points for movie buffs)

So I guess we are giving growth in ATL. Sorry couldnt resist. I will lokk out for SWA pilots until the day the list are merged. After that we will all be SWA pilots.

But it won't. Money NEVER buys happiness when seniority is concerned.

Sure, people might get a pay raise, but once that has faded, and it will fade, every pilot will be looking at their new seniority number and compare them to what they had....and it will make certain segments very grouchy, and it will fester for years and years.

Pay is temporary, seniority is forever.

Arbitration is probably a good bet. It takes the hate away from the pilot groups and focuses it on an external source.

Nu

Heh heh... good one. ;)

No, that's very true. If Southwest can come in and make Delta decide to quit trying to go head-to-head in a fare war with us on our routes and concentrate on THEIR routes that we don't compete on, then more power to US! :)

And I don't fault any Southwest pilot for looking out for their own. I just don't want to end up like US/AW.

Outstanding Dedication:)

http://picfor.bildero.net/0017E8AA/R...gifs_large.jpg
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...w=1680&bih=831

SWA guys have more to lose!? You won. This is a business and you just took out a competitor. How can you guys not see past our crappy little pilot jobs. Its called the big picture. My god....wake up.
I never said anything about ATL or International (if you want to call it that). My point is the general feeling on this board is that all us AT guys are excited as hell about SWA. This simply isnt true in the pilots I have talked to at work. Most of us are skeptical and a good majority were happy at da tranny (not including myself). At the end of the day SWA bought a billion dollars worth of gate space; an outstanding deal in todays cramped market. Airplanes and pilots are mass produced-gate space is limited.

The merger has to be fair and equitable between the pilots. The question is, what will AT guys gain from this merger (more pay, more days off, decent management and some would argue better job security) and what will SWA pilots gain (Please publish some gains here...I don't see 'em). I really don't want to see Carl Spackler and TSquare being the only winners out of this deal, so I will certainly agree to any reasonable proposal as we are soon all going to be spreading the mustard colored menace together.

See you downstairs in LBB.

Hmmmmmm. Im starting to wonder if a college degree is a requirement for employment here. Your gain as an employee of SWA is that your company (thats swa), just bought massive gains along the east coast (to your right on the map). You company (thats swa) is growing overnight (increasing revenue) throughout the system. OK...hold on for this one.........thats job security for all!!!! The biggest gain any employee (thats us) could ask for. I feel like Glenn Beck with my dry erase board here! But if thats not enough of a gain.......you get ATL overnights. That is all.