Bond

Assuming the merger is announced this summer, the merger itself could take up to 2 years to be completed. The landscape could change dramatically by then. A few regional feeder contracts on both the CAL and UA sides are coming due in the next couple of years.

So I say this, all of you guys out there salivating at the chance to fly an E-jet under a coex banner...well, don't hold your breath. Merger or not, the E-jets will hopefully go to mainline a la USairways...they're called 190's, more fuel efficient and better economics than it's smaller relative (the 170).

I can tell you for sure, that most mailine guys learned their lesson, and they're not going to roll over on scope because management tells them it's "grandfathered" from UA.

SharkyBN584

What's ironic is when RAH's last contract was negotiated, scope was where it was at. If it wasn't for our scope clause, the 50 seat drivers would be out of a job. As it stands, they are still the majority of pilots on the RAH seniority list. That leads me to my point:

Scope is the most important playing card pilots have in their pocket. Protect your scope and you protect your job. I could care less how big the jet is...the smallest jet at a legacy carrier beats the biggest jet at a regional carrier any day. The industry ain't what it used to be...but it's better towards the top than it is towards the bottom.

The smart play in a CAL/UAL merger is this (pretty much what BoilerUp said...he's the smart one around here): let the carriers with contracts for 51+ seats play out their contracts. At the end, they waste away and are picked up by mainline pilots. So you go from a 737 to a E170...guess what?! You still have a friggin' job.

BoilerUP

Aw, shucks...