Freddriver5

Short Bus, just another example of IT nirvana us recallees are having to endure. I'm in the same boat. IT company with wings...my a$$.

CRM114

LOL, I see what you were thinking! What he meant was IT, as in "IT's all about me!"

JoePatroni

If you have a letter in your employee number try capitalizing it, seems to have worked that way for some people.

Scott Stoops

He really does look like Count Chocula. Uncanny.

UAL T38 Phlyer

Just did a quick search, and here's what I came up with for 2013 financials, UCH:

1st Qtr: -325 million
2nd: 521
3rd: 379
4th: 158

Total: +733 million

There are supposedly 88,500 employees. If The Count intends to drain 60 million from us equally, that's $677, each. Keep in mind, not everyone uses the Pass program. On a per-user basis, it could easily top $1300+.

This, to raise the net profit by 8.5%.

Jeff, I have an idea: just cut your first-quarter loss in 2014 to $265 million, and you'll get the same result.

He does look like the Cocoa Vampire.

It's time to switch to Frankenberry.

BeenThere

Note to Jeff:

If you want to save $60m on pass travel stop closing bases and disrupting people's lives. Failing that, suck it up and eat the $60m as the price of your mismanagement. NOBODY really wants to commute, they just want a decent place to live. Last time I checked EWR, IAH, LAX, ORD GUM, even SFO were not high on that list!

EWRflyr

Not sure what financials you are looking at but Q4 2013 hasn't been released yet, only the latest "special charges" the company is going to take.

Excluding special charges (which determines profit sharing):

Q1 ($325 million) loss
Q2 $521 million profit
Q3 $590 million profit
Q4 ??? Announcement on January 23rd

So far about $786 million profit before special charges. I think I saw analysts predict about $1 billion for the full year results. We shall see.

EWRflyr

I took the survey and made it clear where I stood on the questions intended to illicit a specific answer and those giving us a choice between the lesser of evils. Changes are going to be made whether we like them or not as was reflected in their opening screen. In closing, I told them that any changes will leave me emotionally impacted along with many other employees.

UAL T38 Phlyer

Thanks for the catch. When I searched for it, the only thing that came up was UCH's official page. The way it was worded was a little ambiguous. I wondered: total special charges, or total net after the charges.

I believe the 1B estimate is likely. If so, then the survey should say:

"We made one BILLION dollars last year! (Please use a Dr. Evil voice for this statement). To reward our coworkers for this success, we would like all employees to take a 2% pay cut* to increase our profit this year by 6%. This 2% cut will pay for your pass travel program; a free program you have earned, and a perk that acts as a strong incentive to establish an airline career for many of our support personnel.

This pay-cut will also ensure that your management team, Board of Directors, CEO, and the Chief of contract employee parking at your domicile, will have top-access Positive-space pass privileges, at nothing less that Business Class.

Their participation is critical to the success of the travel benefits program. Through their oversight and sampling of our premium product, we have added Special Collector's Amenity kits to our high-yield routes, as well as soap and toilet paper in the lavs (select flights only).

Thank you again for taking part in this survey. We have already decided on our course of action, and your input is merely a ruse and placation to make you believe your voice is important to management. ALPA, the AFA, and IAM are too busy with political infighting and wrangling for position to be effective in stopping us. (Insert nefarious villain "Bwa ha haha ha ha!" laugh here).

We have contracted with a low-cost overseas customer-service company to tally your results, as well as screen your additional comments. The funniest, saddest, desperate, and plaintive stories will be forwarded for the first-quarter shareholders' meeting. The winners of this competition will be given two fee-waived single-segment passes at a boarding priority of BP-8.

Thank you again, and Happy New Year."

* 2% is an estimate as to the average income of UCH employees, excluding overpaid pilots.

hopeSales

The pass travel program doesn't have to be this complicated or expensive. The company probable has a couple of full time people working on the system to advantage the company and turn it into a reward program while giving the appearance of employee participation. The company had a survey around a year ago. Did anybody see the results?

As the employees continue to combine and work as one, it may be a good time for the employees to relieve the company of the responsibility of the non-revenue program and allow them to save money and devote company resources to the revenue side. It is a benefit for the employees, why not allow the employees control it.

Why don't we encourage LEC/MEC to approach the other employee groups and the company to allow the employee groups form a committee represented by the different employee groups to deal with policy and procedures for non-revenue travel. L-UAL had a similar program that worked well. I'm sure some of the people that worked on that committee are still around. It would be nice if they would chime in and give a little more insight on the workings of that program.