Originally Posted by
Scoop
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JungleBus 
Dunno if anyone noticed this, but you recently (this week) lost another newhire FO to Southwest.
Oh well... He made a mistake.
Guys you are missing the point! Every Pilot that leaves DAL is great news for all who remain.
There is a cost associated with Pilots leaving - a cost that has been minimal for decades and is now starting to rise.
As has been said before - DAL is no longer most guys first choice as an airline. I hope it will be again in 5-10 years and guys leaving for greener pastures, whether actually greener or not, will only help us achieve this.
What do you think managements response will be to the rising cost of Pilots leaving?? I think they will be forced to look long at hard at our compensation and perhaps be more amenable to increasing it.
As to whether he made a mistake or the smartest move of his career - I don't think anyone can positively answer that question so we can revisit that again in 20 years.
Scoop
Scoop, you're exactly right. We all try to look on the horizon to make our best estimation of how things will turn out, but you never know until you get there.
On 9/11 as I manuvered out of the flightpath of United 175, I had an idea that things would change, but I had no idea that I would go through a nearly three year furlough, my company would go through and bankruptcy, my pension terminated, and then a merger. In fact I'm almost embarassed to think of how happy I was on my newhire day. I thought all I had to do was stay healthy, fly a good airplane and take care of my pax.
So looking back, I could have never predicted what has happened in my career so far, but for the time being I'm holding on until we get through this contract and reevalutate. Many of us are taking a hard look at it right now. We have the potential to salvage a career out of this company, but many things have to come together for us. We have a good management team running the company. It all comes down to what
value (I mean this literally in a cost and benefit anaysis) they place on us as Delta Pilots wearing Delta Unforms.
TC