Frank,

Thank you for sharing your analysis. You say your minimum was 30% of total compensation. But in what time frame is 30% acceptable?
First 20.7%--that is as of 2015.

-2% profit sharing. This may be 0% if Delta doesn’t have a pretax profit.

.1% per diem, you are correct

3.1% sick leave--hopefully you won’t need to use any of it, but even if you did with Delta Pilot’s Mutual Aid (which you pay for every month) and disability you are essentially made whole for a year after sick leave runs out. I would submit that this is not really a pay raise although it is an improvement.

.1% Distance learning and CQ training, you are correct. However I would submit to you that your time is worth the same whether flying an airplane or doing training (as in any other profession). Why should you get 3:45 for a day of CQ while the seat filler sitting next to you gets 5:15?

10% as a function of Avg Daily Guarantee, applying to three trips per month. This could be more than 10% (i.e. the pilots who only fly lax-hawaii). This is actually just a reduction in days required to reach guarantee. Yes, it is an improvement, and long overdue. However, in your case in March, you would not have made more money, just worked less days to reach your monthly hours. This affects some (and probably most) pilots not at all and some a lot. The lax-hawaii pilots will work 3-5 days less to reach guarantee. This is an improvement in work rules and not a raise.

8% reserve pay. The amount of reserve flying has gone up and down throughout my career. Sometimes months reserves fly nothing and sometimes they fly the max. Don’t be fooled, this is not a raise but the ability of the company to fly you more. Calling this a raise is the same as saying flying 150 hours is a 100% raise. This will affect staffing and keep your captain seat out of your reach, which is a real raise.

Scope: The number of 76 seaters is where you should be looking. These seats are your captain seats, not mine. In my view no 76 seaters should be flown by anyone but Delta pilots.

ALPA seems to like comparing us to Southwest. They compare our 2015 pay rates to Southwest 2011 pay rates. What will Southwest’s rates look like in 2015? I don’t know.
I do know Southwest gets 30 hours pay for 7 days vacation. I do know our DC plan is better than theirs. I do know I would have had stock options at Southwest and I do know I would have been a captain at Southwest 12 years earlier. I do not know, but expect you would either be a captain or nearly so at Southwest. My point is when making comparisons, ensure you are comparing apples to apples.

Is this contract an improvement over what we have now? From what I can see the answer is yes with the possible exception of scope.

But the real question for us should be is it better than we can do if we send it back?
Is the company motivated to close a deal? Did Richard really put his absolute best deal on the table seven months early?

I believe we can do better. I believe the company is motivated for reasons we may or may not know. I believe Richard is way too smart to put his best deal on the table this early.

Sending it back may or may not work out for us. I am willing to take that chance. This deal is just not good enough, especially for the ladies and gentlemen that sit in the cockpit to my right.

Put me down as a no.

M