What people seem to forget is that unlike most airline contracts of the current day, Pinnacle Corp's has raises every December 1. So actually at the 7 year CRJ900 pay which is currently $78.02, there is a roughly $2 raise every year. So in 2013 when Eagle is negotiating a new contract the pay at Pinnacle will be $82.77 on 12/1/12 increasing to $84.43 on 12/1/13. So we gave bargaining power to Eagle to raise the bar which we will raise again when we do negotiations 2 years later...

On another note, as somebody mentioned, it's not just about the hourly rates which everybody seems to get wrapped up about. It's about the soft pay. I am on 2nd year pay at Pinnacle corps lowest paying aircraft (9L SLAAAAB) I have been flying around 65-70 hours a month on average and crediting 102-106 hours every month since the contract came out with 13-15 days off a month as a reservist! Could it be better? Of course but the work rules and "soft pay" are where we really won with this contract.