Comair updates?
03-09-2008, 01:32 AM
#2172
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jan 2008
Position: Back of the Furlough Bus
Posts: 222
This is gonna be another fun day. I'm supposed to do one of the great LGA-JFK ferry flights in an hour and a half but I don't have a captain. I can't decide if I should try to call scheduling about it or just sit at laguardia all day again.
03-09-2008, 05:55 AM
#2173
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2006
Position: Popsicle Logic
Posts: 633
If you do their job it will never get better.
03-09-2008, 11:57 AM
#2175
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2007
Position: A320
Posts: 132
Does anybody know how pass benefits work when you give a resignation notice? i.e...can you assign buddy passes for the rest of the year until your quit date or do they have to be finished by then? Any info is appreciated. That's right - some people on here will be one more senior!
03-09-2008, 12:27 PM
#2177
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2006
Position: Happy FO
Posts: 504
Does anybody know how pass benefits work when you give a resignation notice? i.e...can you assign buddy passes for the rest of the year until your quit date or do they have to be finished by then? Any info is appreciated. That's right - some people on here will be one more senior!
03-09-2008, 01:38 PM
#2178
Line Holder
Joined APC: Jul 2007
Position: Another empty kitchen...UA 737 FO
Posts: 71
Dissed by Delta Dudes
Received this interesting e-mail from a buddy of mine w/ comments made by a Delta pilot who had a Delta VIP on his jumpseat.... Can anyone tell me where I can get my "Don't laugh...." bumper sticker? 
"Just got a copy of this 4.5 hr conversation with one of Delta's Networking (route structure) cronies:
Had one of Bob Cortelyou's (Delta Network VP)guys on my jumpseat the other day. A very interesting 4.5 hour conversation. This guy was extremely sharp. Worked for Bob at CAL, then went to Boeing, then came here.
We talked about every conceivable thing regarding Delta, the NWA merger, and state of the airline industry. Too much to mention here but I'll try to highlight a few points. [Feel free to ask questions before I forget.]
DL/NW. Both mgmts want this. NW senior mgmt gets golden parachutes. We keep the NW mgmt we want, mainly the guys who are good at fending off competition and yield management....says they are best in industry.
DL/NW will be extremely powerful due to most complete network...Pacific, Tokyo rights, Europe, Latin America, and most of US. Only hole is N/S West coast traffic. [Alaska Air?] Will dominate (very profitable) SEA and NYC, as well as other markets.
The main reason for the merger mania is that it will give the industry pricing power. [like it did for the oil companies, banks, telecom, etc...] And yes, it will also make the wall street guys happy.
Mgmt really wishes pilots can come to seniority agreement. Deal will not happen without pilot consent. Asked why not? Said we do not want a USAir situation here, it will more than offset the benefits of a merger. Mgmt does not want us to have fences either.
Captain and I explained in great detail our concerns of the SLI, especially as to why it won't work as proposed by NW pilots. We also explained in great detail our other concerns. Believe me, this guy got a [polite] ear full.
And for you fellow commuters... I told him most of the NW pilots commute and that about half the DL pilots do. I pointed out that many NW crew members live down south, and for example, 600 NW crew members live in the DFW area alone. I told him few of us can afford to live in NYC or LAX. In the event of a merger whereby there will be displacements, re-alignments, record high loads, and so forth, it will be even more of a "flustercluck" getting to work. I asked about the feasability of positive space passes for commuters. He admitted that the company knows there are going to be logistical problems in this regard and would have to do something to ensure the crews got to work, FWIW. He then asked me if I personally would be willing to commute to a place like DTW if I had positive space. I told him "yes" as long as I was holding an equivalent seat position.
He said DL has a good stand-alone plan if NW falls through.
He couldn't divulge in great detail company's plans, but....and this is my take.....is that we are not interested in UAL as a whole. UAL in deep doo doo. Their problem is that in addition to not shedding enough debt in their BK, they are a rudderless ship. Tilton and Co are just there to suck money out of UAL for themselves. Could face death by a 1000 cuts. If they spin off the PAC operation, we may take this.
DL has been and is going to bitterly fight off competition. [ie. Drove Airtran out of SEA-ATL, drove JBlue out of ATL-Los Angeles]
CAL/UAL will happen if we merge with NW. Not sure how CAL can cope with all of UAL's problems & debt, especially all the PO'd UAL labor groups. CAL also has a bit of a debt problem itself.
Not sure what AA will do with merger mania. AA has a big problem in that they have lots of debt. [Maybe they should have gone ch11 a few years ago.]
Jblu and Luftansa: Why? JBlu not inherently profitable. Has big problems coming up. Luftansa figures it can give them money and ultimately get some of their JFK slots........which it can then trade, bargain, or sell.
Airtran. Similar story to JBLU. Wonders where they are going to put their new planes? No more room for them in ATL. NW cockblocked them in MKE with the Midwest purchase, [I guess those guys are good.]
As for SWA....who now has one of the highest non-fuel cost structure in the industry. Again, similar story. Not too worried about SWA as a major competitor. They have big challenges coming up as well.
USAir? Ha! Our mgmt knows very well about how the labor unrest is costing them big money. Again, they do not want any of that type of crap here.
He feels that DL and CAL are the strongest airlines in USA. And that we have more upside potential.
DL/CAL won't work, too much overlap, not enough Pacific, and somebody will have to give up a NYC hub.
2010 and beyond. We have the ability to get all the Boeing 777s and 737s we need for business plan.
Many more markets in Europe we want to go to. Asia too. Wants Beijing and feels like we have a real good shot at it. Looking at other Africa markets. Wants more pacific, we need more 777s. 737-700's will open up more Latin America markets. The 737-700 will replace some markets being served by the 757, like Quito or Reno....thus freeing up the 757 to go somewhere with better yield. He seemed to really love the 737-700, lots you can do with it.
Couldn't pin him down on just what the heck we are going to do with our crappy JFK facility. There is no immediate easy solution. Mgmt is well aware of this problem and it's effects on our ability to market in NYC. It will not kill us in NYC, but it is a challenge. They are working on it and it appears to still be a high prioirty.
Speaking of marketing. We now actually do this! Unlike for the past 3 decades! I believe we are still building up our sales teams.
LAX profitable but there is lots of competition driving down yields. MEM profitable for NW. CVG...not so much for us.
Sell Comair? They are worthless, [tell me something I don't know!] Too many 50 seaters. [Maybe we should put the bumper sticker on them that says: "Don't laugh, it's paid for."]
If we merge with NW, we have plenty of places for the DC-9s to fly to and will hang on to more of them than NW was planning on.
DL Connection:
Mgmt is well aware of their lousy service. They are constantly beating up on those companies. He pointed out that this was the reason they replaced the ASA ground personnel in ATL with DL people. I asked if he was aware that DL CNX was hiring low time pilots, and that low time pilots have a habit of breaking airplanes driving up maintenance costs, and occasionally crashing them killing our passengers, and that if those above factors are figured into their balance sheets? He wouldn't touch that one with 10 foot pole!....so maybe not....but hopefully mgmt will figure it out. I suggested that since they replaced the ASA folks, maybe DL pilots should fly those jets so as not to have the above problems. I then asked at what point did he figure broken airplanes and dead PAX would overshadow the added expense of putting DL pilots there? Wouldn't touch that one either!
And finally....
Mgmt and marketing in particular, are well aware that we have more than a few in-flight personnel who are, how do I say this politely?......um, "motivationally challenged," among other things. Would love to do something about this but are concerned about getting AFA on the property. Along those lines, they believe that since NW FA's are the minority to DL FAs, they can get AFA de-certified among them. A new election would have to be held for AFA to get on the property. He did say he has personally given presentations to numerous new-hire FA classes and that he is, and we will be, "impressed" with who we have hired."
"Just got a copy of this 4.5 hr conversation with one of Delta's Networking (route structure) cronies:
Had one of Bob Cortelyou's (Delta Network VP)guys on my jumpseat the other day. A very interesting 4.5 hour conversation. This guy was extremely sharp. Worked for Bob at CAL, then went to Boeing, then came here.
We talked about every conceivable thing regarding Delta, the NWA merger, and state of the airline industry. Too much to mention here but I'll try to highlight a few points. [Feel free to ask questions before I forget.]
DL/NW. Both mgmts want this. NW senior mgmt gets golden parachutes. We keep the NW mgmt we want, mainly the guys who are good at fending off competition and yield management....says they are best in industry.
DL/NW will be extremely powerful due to most complete network...Pacific, Tokyo rights, Europe, Latin America, and most of US. Only hole is N/S West coast traffic. [Alaska Air?] Will dominate (very profitable) SEA and NYC, as well as other markets.
The main reason for the merger mania is that it will give the industry pricing power. [like it did for the oil companies, banks, telecom, etc...] And yes, it will also make the wall street guys happy.
Mgmt really wishes pilots can come to seniority agreement. Deal will not happen without pilot consent. Asked why not? Said we do not want a USAir situation here, it will more than offset the benefits of a merger. Mgmt does not want us to have fences either.
Captain and I explained in great detail our concerns of the SLI, especially as to why it won't work as proposed by NW pilots. We also explained in great detail our other concerns. Believe me, this guy got a [polite] ear full.
And for you fellow commuters... I told him most of the NW pilots commute and that about half the DL pilots do. I pointed out that many NW crew members live down south, and for example, 600 NW crew members live in the DFW area alone. I told him few of us can afford to live in NYC or LAX. In the event of a merger whereby there will be displacements, re-alignments, record high loads, and so forth, it will be even more of a "flustercluck" getting to work. I asked about the feasability of positive space passes for commuters. He admitted that the company knows there are going to be logistical problems in this regard and would have to do something to ensure the crews got to work, FWIW. He then asked me if I personally would be willing to commute to a place like DTW if I had positive space. I told him "yes" as long as I was holding an equivalent seat position.
He said DL has a good stand-alone plan if NW falls through.
He couldn't divulge in great detail company's plans, but....and this is my take.....is that we are not interested in UAL as a whole. UAL in deep doo doo. Their problem is that in addition to not shedding enough debt in their BK, they are a rudderless ship. Tilton and Co are just there to suck money out of UAL for themselves. Could face death by a 1000 cuts. If they spin off the PAC operation, we may take this.
DL has been and is going to bitterly fight off competition. [ie. Drove Airtran out of SEA-ATL, drove JBlue out of ATL-Los Angeles]
CAL/UAL will happen if we merge with NW. Not sure how CAL can cope with all of UAL's problems & debt, especially all the PO'd UAL labor groups. CAL also has a bit of a debt problem itself.
Not sure what AA will do with merger mania. AA has a big problem in that they have lots of debt. [Maybe they should have gone ch11 a few years ago.]
Jblu and Luftansa: Why? JBlu not inherently profitable. Has big problems coming up. Luftansa figures it can give them money and ultimately get some of their JFK slots........which it can then trade, bargain, or sell.
Airtran. Similar story to JBLU. Wonders where they are going to put their new planes? No more room for them in ATL. NW cockblocked them in MKE with the Midwest purchase, [I guess those guys are good.]
As for SWA....who now has one of the highest non-fuel cost structure in the industry. Again, similar story. Not too worried about SWA as a major competitor. They have big challenges coming up as well.
USAir? Ha! Our mgmt knows very well about how the labor unrest is costing them big money. Again, they do not want any of that type of crap here.
He feels that DL and CAL are the strongest airlines in USA. And that we have more upside potential.
DL/CAL won't work, too much overlap, not enough Pacific, and somebody will have to give up a NYC hub.
2010 and beyond. We have the ability to get all the Boeing 777s and 737s we need for business plan.
Many more markets in Europe we want to go to. Asia too. Wants Beijing and feels like we have a real good shot at it. Looking at other Africa markets. Wants more pacific, we need more 777s. 737-700's will open up more Latin America markets. The 737-700 will replace some markets being served by the 757, like Quito or Reno....thus freeing up the 757 to go somewhere with better yield. He seemed to really love the 737-700, lots you can do with it.
Couldn't pin him down on just what the heck we are going to do with our crappy JFK facility. There is no immediate easy solution. Mgmt is well aware of this problem and it's effects on our ability to market in NYC. It will not kill us in NYC, but it is a challenge. They are working on it and it appears to still be a high prioirty.
Speaking of marketing. We now actually do this! Unlike for the past 3 decades! I believe we are still building up our sales teams.
LAX profitable but there is lots of competition driving down yields. MEM profitable for NW. CVG...not so much for us.
Sell Comair? They are worthless, [tell me something I don't know!] Too many 50 seaters. [Maybe we should put the bumper sticker on them that says: "Don't laugh, it's paid for."]
If we merge with NW, we have plenty of places for the DC-9s to fly to and will hang on to more of them than NW was planning on.
DL Connection:
Mgmt is well aware of their lousy service. They are constantly beating up on those companies. He pointed out that this was the reason they replaced the ASA ground personnel in ATL with DL people. I asked if he was aware that DL CNX was hiring low time pilots, and that low time pilots have a habit of breaking airplanes driving up maintenance costs, and occasionally crashing them killing our passengers, and that if those above factors are figured into their balance sheets? He wouldn't touch that one with 10 foot pole!....so maybe not....but hopefully mgmt will figure it out. I suggested that since they replaced the ASA folks, maybe DL pilots should fly those jets so as not to have the above problems. I then asked at what point did he figure broken airplanes and dead PAX would overshadow the added expense of putting DL pilots there? Wouldn't touch that one either!
And finally....
Mgmt and marketing in particular, are well aware that we have more than a few in-flight personnel who are, how do I say this politely?......um, "motivationally challenged," among other things. Would love to do something about this but are concerned about getting AFA on the property. Along those lines, they believe that since NW FA's are the minority to DL FAs, they can get AFA de-certified among them. A new election would have to be held for AFA to get on the property. He did say he has personally given presentations to numerous new-hire FA classes and that he is, and we will be, "impressed" with who we have hired."
03-09-2008, 02:04 PM
#2179
I have shiny jet syndrome
Joined APC: Jan 2008
Position: ELACS, FACs and SECs. Who doesn't love 'em?
Posts: 984
Just about as reliable as me saying we had Selvaggio in our jumpseat the other day saying we were going to buy Delta. Complete conjecture! And not to mention arrgoance. Like a Delta pilot flying RJs would make the operation any better. We pilots have nothing to do with how the operation runs. Our on time performance in JFK sucks because of our slot swap with Delta. Plus, I don't think a Delta pilot would be caught dead flying an RJ. They are sooooo much better than that, especially with their double breasted suits!!
And the comment on us crashing because of "low time pilots" is absurd. Mainline carriers have had just as many, if not more crashes than the regional sector.
Delta 554 in LGA in October 1996
Delta 1141 in DFW in August 1988
Delta 191 in DFW in August 1985
Delta 516 in CHA in November 1973
versus
Comair 3272 in DTW in January 1997
Comair 5191 in LEX in August 2006
Source: www.airdisaster.com
And I didn't list every Delta accident. Just a few. There were only 2 Comair listed.
Gimmie a break. This guy needs to get over the bad blood of the past between Delta and Comair/ASA and move on. Not trying to flame anyone here or any Delta guy. Just trying to blow holes in his comment on how a Delta pilot would make flying RJs any better.
And the comment on us crashing because of "low time pilots" is absurd. Mainline carriers have had just as many, if not more crashes than the regional sector.
Delta 554 in LGA in October 1996
Delta 1141 in DFW in August 1988
Delta 191 in DFW in August 1985
Delta 516 in CHA in November 1973
versus
Comair 3272 in DTW in January 1997
Comair 5191 in LEX in August 2006
Source: www.airdisaster.com
And I didn't list every Delta accident. Just a few. There were only 2 Comair listed.
Gimmie a break. This guy needs to get over the bad blood of the past between Delta and Comair/ASA and move on. Not trying to flame anyone here or any Delta guy. Just trying to blow holes in his comment on how a Delta pilot would make flying RJs any better.
Last edited by RJtrashPilot; 03-09-2008 at 03:49 PM.
03-09-2008, 03:52 PM
#2180
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2007
Position: Aeroplanes
Posts: 1,163
Are they aware that our "lousy service" is due to Delta's decisions? Like twice in the past 2 weeks, at JFK, they have parked the 900 out on pad 11, and made first class passengers walk through the rain, across the ramp, and onto some dirty old smelly bus
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