Obvious disclaimer: I'm an FNG and the questions I ask are honest questions and I'm not trying to flame anyone. Just looking for answers.

First off, my thanks to the Negotiating Committee for their time and efforts. It's not an easy task and it is a thankless job, and no matter what TA they came back with, there will be some people complaining about it. As a former active ALPA volunteer at my previous airline, I know the hard work that goes into this and I applaud their effort and sacrifice for this pilot group.

I did listen to the conference call last night and it was somewhat informative. I'm hoping to go to one of the roadshows in ATL or DFW next week.

1. If we are to assume the SEoceancrosser is correct and they do use more split lines just to get some extra free travel days out of the pilot group, wouldn't that also increase their costs and be counterintuitive? So, on a typical 18 day pairing, they pay for 2 commercial flights (one from the home airport and one back to it). If they split it, now they are paying 4 airfares. Wouldn't it behoove them to just keep as many 18 day lines as possible?

2. The new contract provides some pretty significant job protection provisions. It pretty much prohibits the company from forming an "Omni Air Lite". As it stands now, they can essentially just close up shop today and re-open tomorrow using the same equipment under a different name. (I realize I may have over simplified this point, but hopefully you catch my drift.) Also, in the event of any type of corporate transaction, where either the company buys another carrier or another carrier buys Omni, the IBT merger policy must be enforced if both pilot groups are represented by the IBT, otherwise Allegheny-Mohawk applies. This is far better than what we have today.

3. Today, we are at will employees. So while on probation you can be fired for any reason and when off probation you can be fired for no reason. Under the new contract, the grievance process is avaliable and the SBA (arbitration) process is also avaliable.

4. Insurance premimums seem to have gone down slightly, which is good. Paying less for mediocre insurance is a good thing, right?

5. Pay rates seem half way reasonable. Granted, some of the pay raises may go toward paying for fuel and long term parking fees under the new "Gateway Airport" concept, minimizing the pay raise.

Thanks again to the Negotiating Committee and I hope that everyone makes an informed decision when they vote for this contract. At a minimum, every pilot here should at least listen to the conference call if they can't go to a roadshow.

I'll probably catch some crap for saying this, however, based on what I know about the negotiating process and the RLA, this isn't terribly horrible (is that considered a double negative? If so, I apologize to my 10th grade English teacher, Mrs. Delk) for a first contract.