Communication #10



Fellow Furloughed Pilots,



Continental is working on filling the October and November classes. The October 4th class is full. We have learned a lot about the process of filling these classes and continue to adj ust how we offer the opportunity. First, we were surprised how senior the Guam positions went. The most junior person on the list to accept Guam was 158 from the top on the furlough list. The most junior person to accept a domestic domicile was number 99 from the top on the furlough list. Due to multiple factors we have decided to accelerate the offers to our furloughed pilots. Instead of working in groups of 100 we have increased to groups of 250. Continental will send out the 250 letters this week with class dates slated for November and December. We will continue to work with this size group for the foreseeable future.



Unfortunately, there have been a few hiccups along the way. Many of you heard that several active pilots received job offers from Continental. Forty four active United pilots received the Guam volunteer letter. This occurred becau se these pilots were on the master furlough list. During the furlough process they received furlough letters for a November 2009 furlough and were placed on the list. There were enough last minute voluntary furloughs to keep them on property. The list that was sent to Continental still contained these names and before the error was realized, the letters were sent. I called all 44 pilots and apologized that they received the letters. All the pilots I spoke with had a great sense of humor about the mistake. We had additional Guam volunteer letters in the queue and those were sent out immediately. As it turns out, Guam went a lot more senior than anyone anticipated and those additional letters did not need to be sent. Now that we better understand the capabilities of our two departments at the two companies, we have ironed out a lot of the kinks in the process.



I would also like to take a moment to remind you that due to the fluid nature of this process, base/domicile assignments for the individual classes will not be known until the first day of class, there are no exceptions. Please remember that there are several ways to change your base assignment and Continental will explain the options to you.



I look forward to meeting the October 4th class in a few weeks and I wish them the best of luck. As always, if you have any questions about this process or are having any other furlough related issues please do not hesitate to contact me.



Sincerely,



Furlough Coordinator, Flight Operations











__._,_.___