jc73drvr

I wonder if Delta was ever afraid of Air Tran. I've heard a lot of bad mouthing from Delta pilots about Air Tran in the past, especially when I lived in ATL.
It's funny that Air Tran survived so many years in Atlanta competing with DAL, and DAL could never really put a dent in them. So now, they want to show support for AT? Define Hypocrite.

In my opinion ALPA really makes pilots miserable. I worked for an ALPA carrier several years ago. All I ever heard was along the line of "the company is trying to screw you, don't go outta of your way for no reason, etc, etc etc". The only good I saw in ALPA was air safety. I also witnessed first hand how ALPA handled things at Eastern. Many ALPA carriers turned their backs one EAL ALPA members after EAL demise. They would not hire EAL pilots because they did not want the dark cloud that followed. Many airlines grew from the end of Eastern, including American and Delta. Delta got big in ATL because EAL was gone, DAL got big international because of PanAm closing. DAL, UAL, AMR gained quite a lot by taking airplanes, gates and routes. However they offered very few jobs to the pilot group. These are facts. What did ALPA do about it? (The answer is nothing. most ALPA pilots complained about paying assessment dues during the EAL strike, and could care less about any EAL pilot afterwards...)
So if any ALPA lovers think SWAPA (or WN) is $crewing little ole AT, just remember that when you point the finger, you have three more pointing back at you. ALPA is not a union that truly has its member’s best interest; they only make you believe they do. If ALPA was so great to pilots, why does the career not offer anything more than it did 15 years ago?
So bash SWAPA and WN, bash the integration with AT, do whatever it takes to make you feel good.

I am relieved to hear you’re not afraid of us anymore, we never meant to scare anyone..Need a tissue?

80ktsClamp

Those that had trouble getting hired after the EAL demise were the scabs. If you need that explained to you, I'm not sure you can be helped.

Besides, none of this is about ALPA. Most of us got drawn into this by the ridiculous statements of the WN types in regards to the SLI... following that has certainly peaked the curiosity of many in regards to how their positions originate.

Oh... and many of the DL followers of this have cards in to bring to a vote on whether or not to oust ALPA.

tsquare

Nice rant... sort of.

shoelu

You want to know who is afraid of arbitration, it is GK.

If you folks knew anything about our contract, you would know that it does not allow codeshare, period. Let that sink in for a moment. OUR SECTION 1 DOES NOT ALLOW ANY FORM OF DOMESTIC CODE SHARE! It does not allow anyone to fly our passengers that are not on the SWAPA master seniority list. That includes wholly owned subsidiaries. There is a waiver for 24 months if an acqusition takes place. We are more than 25% through that time frame already.

What happens to this grand experiment when that 24 months is up and we do not yet have a fully finalized and integrated group?

Now can you see a sense of urgency for management to get a negotiated deal? Oh wait a minute, I am sure you can't because you are still trying to wrap your head around the fact that some groups won't sell their scope. How is the Alaska arrangement working out by the way? Maybe your LA boys can hold on long enough for our LA base to open up then shoot an application our way.

alfaromeo

My daddy can beat up your daddy.

forgot to bid

I've never heard in 4 years any pilot at Delta be the least bit interested in talking about AirTran other than because of the SWA merger and the oddball paint schemes. It's not a topic of conversation. Except for what I put in my last paragraph here.

But if Delta pilots have a problem with AirTran it has a lot to do with Valujet because slightly more than half of Delta today was hired when Valujet was still in existence. For those of us who know more of AirTran (although I flew on Valujet as a teen a bunch) we know 717s and later 737s and a very, at least seemingly, clean operation.

But its not out of the question for a Delta pilot hired in the 90s or before to primarily view AirTran as nothing but the Valujet that was grounded for three months.

And for those Delta pilots around in the early 90s they remember how Delta was forced to retire it's DC-9 fleet in 1992 due to a AD (I'm not sure what it was specifically but assuming an AD). Most of the DC-9s were acquired in 1993 by Valujet who was granted a waiver, probably for populism reasons, to operate those 9s without compliance. That hasn't sat well with them for years because it allowed Valujet to grow cheaply and exponentially.

Rather B Fishin

Your grasp of a rationale argument is underwhelming. Yes a company that flies RJ's and a company that flies 777's are comparable..... Are you sure you're still not flying airplanes around with holes in em? You sound a bit hypoxic to me.

buzzpat

If I'd wanted to fly for SWA, I'd be flying for SWA. Thanks anyway. We'll take you on here. Any day.

forgot to bid

Oh, and we'll stand up for whoever we want to stand up for.

When SWA management turns on SWA pilots, we'll stand up for SWA pilots too.

Rolf

I think we can all agree that nor all airlines are created equal. Some of the differences that makes airlines "unequal" are; balance sheet, equipment, contract, age of pilot groups, potential of airline and how cool the uniform looks when walking through the terminal. For some reason DAL pilots thinks that only 2 and 5 matters. As far as flying airplanes that stand out(ugly?) goes.....Your only cool airplane was the powerpuff girls jet, and she is gone.