Originally Posted by DAL73n

Not to bring facts into the equation (why confuse everyone) BUT I decided to look and see if there was that big a disparity in pay rates such that it would be uneconomical to fly those A/C at DAL:

I am going to assume that most CA will be 12 year pay (yeah, there may be some younger guys but let's look at the worst case) and let's say F/O's fall at 6 year pay (for DAL used the 2012 PWA rates and for our competitors the recent APC pilot pay survey):

....................................DAL/.........JetBlue/.......Skywest/.......Comair/

CA (E190/CRJ900)/.........116/.........139/............112/................99/

F/O(E190/CRJ900)/..........73/...........82/.............44/.................68/

Sorry about the formatting (couldn't get tabs or spaces to work).
Now, while I can't vouch for additional cost of FAs (although this would probably go junior/very young new FAs) since I don't have their pay scales it is certainly hard to argue that it is pilot cost making it uneconomical to fly those A/C at mainline. Is Jet Blue that much more efficient than us that they can afford to pay their pilots more than us (similar to SWA 737s)? I think it's time to show mother DAL it is time to start flying Delta pax on Delta A/C with Delta pilots to protect the brand. Anyone who cares to please shoot holes in this as you please.