First post ever...
As a retired commercial pilot with 38 plus years in the cockpit I have a few observations concerning the AA/TWA thread regarding seniority integration and AA's plight now. I read all the preceding threads and had a big chuckle.
The day you decided to fly for a commercial carrier how did you chose "your" airline? Did you chose the one with the best routes, or the best equipment, or the best chance for advancement, or the best looking uniforms, or the best looking flight attendants (oops...dating myself!), or the one that was hiring at the time, or had the best balance sheet, or the one that accepted you?
The point is no matter how you ended up with "your" airline, you personally had virtually nothing to do with its success or failure, now or in the future. Management and Government play the major parts. Sure you can give up wages and benefits but you are only temporarily "fixing" management's decisions.
So, with the fact that we commercial pilots are all the same, interchangeable, numbers that do a great job of getting us all safely from A to B, why would one group feel so superior over another? If you are a pilot for a carrier that is doing well or at least doing better that another, does that make you, a better pilot or person, than the less fortunate one? It's the luck of the draw! It could happen to any of us.
And now it has...Never mind about who's the "biggest... has the most routes"...blah, blah, blah! What did any of us have to do with that?! The fact is the "biggest" back in 2001 is not so "big" anymore. And aren't those AA pilots blaming it all on management? How ironic is that?
My point is that which goes around comes around or Karma or whatever. Treat your peers as you would want to be treated, because you could be the next one with the short end of the stick, through no fault of your own.
By the way, I personally attended the bankruptcy hearings in Delaware in 2001 and I could go on for days about what really happened, but no matter what I said about that, there would be nothing but sniping and arguing about those facts.
I hope that all the AA pilots, as well as the flight attendants and ground personnel, get a fair and equitable outcome in their quest to survive in their chosen profession. Wouldn't that be something?
Fraternally yours,
Just along for the ride!