UALinIAH

Was he one of our 1 yr just off probation CAs? Anyone who’s been here any length of time has lived through downturns where the first thing the company goes after is pay rates. That’s why you’ll hear the old hats scream never give up QOL in a contract, it’s damn near impossible to get back.

JTwift

nope. Like 25+ years.

UALinIAH

Well then I can only concur with the poster above. “He’s an idiot”

GrabPopcorn

Is this the consensus among the pilot group.. that QOL sections will not see much improvement at United? The global reserve, trip drop/swap, and overtime pay unchanged? I'm trying to decide between offers at DL/UA. It's hard to reach when Delta only has an agreement in principle and United has no proposal.

Hedley

Both companies would be great places to work. Contracts and management teams come and go, so decide where you want to live, pick the company that would make that the easiest, and simply enjoy the ride. Over the course of a career, QOL between Delta and United will be a wash.

But seriously

The guy you quoted was a DL pilot commenting on his hopes for the UA contract. He was saying that his only concern was pay rates, because that’s the only part of the UA contract that directly affects Delta pilots.

BlueScholar

How old are you? If you're 25 and are going to be flying for the next 40 years, a 4 or 5 year contract isn't going to matter very much in the grand scheme of things. If you're 55, then okay the next contract might make a bigger impact. I would base your decision on some formula of base locations, financials, culture, seniority and the type of flying you want to do. Then if everything is equal maybe the contract differences come into play. But even then are you going to be mad if your runner up adds a me too clause that edges your pay by 1%?

To answer your QOL question the CEO wants United to grow by 100 aircraft a year for 5 years. That's twice as big as the largest single year growth in airline history and we want to do that for half a decade. We currently have over 100 empty captain positions because the QOL issues that hit jr positions. If United is to succeed there is no other option than to make reserve QOL better and convince folks to move to the left seat. There is no way that we do not see a big QOL increase in the next contract, otherwise it's getting voted down.

TFAYD

I hope you are right.

unfilled CA spots is not a recent phenomenon. We also had that pre-Tumi and yet they managed to come with a TA that made QoL worse.

new bases and “unlimited” CA spots around the system is designed to avoid any QoL improvements for as long as they can of to minimize what needs to be done.

Tumi was all about pilot productivity. QoL is not helping with productivity.

I am not too bullish on major improvements