Originally Posted by alfaromeo

So the best I have gotten is that the work rules saved the company 300 jobs and that we had an early out for 191 pilots. I will just ignore the other gains we made that increase the need for pilots and use your numbers. Unless math has changed lately that nets out to about 110 pilots. So the best you can come up with is that if capacity didn't shrink next year, they would hire 110 pilots this spring and 110 pilots would be in a higher paying category next year. In actuality no one can show that they would really need to hire next spring given where the economy has gone, but I will spot you that one too.

So on average a move up the ladder to the next higher paying position is about a $10 an hour raise under the old pay rates. That equates to about $10,000 a year income and for 110 pilots that would be $1.1 million. Now the pilot group got $80 million per year in raises in July and then another $170 million per year in January. So in 2013 we are getting $250 million per year in increased pay and 110 pilots lost a chance to make, combined, $1.1 million.

Am I the only who doesn't think that is a good tradeoff? On average, these pay increases for 2013 will mean an average increase of $20,000 or more in salary for each Delta pilots. So the trade is $20,000 per year for 11,000+ pilots versus $10,000 per year for 110 pilots. Please, someone tell me:

1. How anyone in the world could call this cost neutral for pilots and not be unable to do basic math?

2. How this would be better for the pilot group?

3. How this would be better for even the 110 pilots that would move up a position?

So imagine you are say oh an elected leader of Council 20. Would you make that tradeoff, $1.1 million for $250 million? Not to mention that there are millions more coming in 2014 and 2015. Not to mention higher reserve guarantee more vacation and many other items. Is that a trade you would make or are you too committed to this contra agenda that you would take the path that makes you the hero of the forum crowd but could screw the pilots out of more than a billion dollars of contractual gains. Plus the opportunity to accelerate the movement of flying back to mainline. Perhaps an elected leader will face these decisions and they will have to decide whether they want some small vocal group to pat them on the back for a few days or whether they want to put money in pilots' pockets.

We would all like a situation where we just write down our demands and they are delivered to us on a silver platter. Perhaps that will come with a pretty pink pony that flies. Until that happens you will face real decisions in a real world.