Originally Posted by
Herkflyr
Uh...I think you know that your logic is beyond suspect. The ATI pilots will be getting a $50K+ a year pay increase, if not more, from what I can tell. Even hinting that somehow compares to a "one cent" raise is like saying there is no difference between McDonald's and a kid's lemonade stand. After all they both make money selling food and drink, do they not? Disclaimer: I'm not equating the ATI pilots with the lemonade stand, just the silly $.01 analogy
As for the "airframe" argument: that would have merit if SWA got the planes without the pilots; with this acquisition they do get the planes, but planes that are already pre-staffed with pilots to go with them. No "windfall" there. The ATI pilots get a large pay increase just for doing the exact same thing they were doing before. SWA pilots don't.
YGTBKM. I'll take the second one first. By stapling the FOs on the bottom that is EXACTLY what they get.. unfettered access to airplanes that they did not have before. Windfall.
The first one. Gotcha. Kind of like that old joke. You go up to a woman and ask her if she would sleep with you for $1 million dollars, and she says.. "Uh, OK" Then you say to her "How about $50?" and she says "What do you think I am a prostitute?" The response from you at that point is "Why, yes, we have already established that and now all we are doing is negotiating the price." So if $0.01 is a silly analogy and is NOT a windfall, what dollar figure do you have in mind that would make it a windfall? Take your time.
Look, I really don't care how this all pans out, it doesn't affect me one way or the other except that I might wind up training the FOs that realize they won't upgrade in their natural lifetimes and come over to DAL to fly the ER, but I am amazed that once again it comes back to money with you guys. Truly a sad thing IMHO.