I'm afraid you're right, my friend.

I've heard that SWA will be buying JetBlue within the next couple of years. Mr. Kelly wants to kill a competitor and get JFK slots. While he likes the E-190, he plans to sub-lease the Airbuses to AAL. Which sucks for you and I, because we'll end up integrating all 2000 JetBlue pilots but only a fraction of their flying assets will make it on property resulting in stagnation and overmanning.

I've also heard that SWAPA has decided to change their stance on SLIs. Based on feedback from the last integration, and pressure from a SWA management team eager to avoid problems from new employees, SWAPA will accede to Relative Seniority for all future acquisitions, even with significantly disparate carriers.

So even though SWA pilots (and, shortly, all AAI pilots) enjoy gigantic advantages in pay rates, work rules, job security, quality of life, benefits, etc. compared to JetBlue, we've decided that this doesn't matter. All narrow body aircraft pilot jobs are inherently the same, we've concluded; therefore, seniority at one company is worth exactly the same as at another. The fact that dozens of JetBlue pilots have voluntarily surrendered their seniority at JB to start at the bottom at SWA is meaningless. The fact that a career at SWA is likely worth 7 figures more than a similar one at JB is likewise immaterial. And the fact that JetBlue pilots are much younger than those at SWA, which will result in the top of the combined list being nearly all JB in 25 years or less, is something SWA/AAI pilots are just going to have to suck up.

The more radical SWAPA leadership now considers it bourgeois to insist that we own our CBA just because we built it. We need to share our hard earned gains whenever we have the opportunity and should not expect any seniority in return.

SWAPA and SWA have concluded that it's our job to seek parity and equality amongst all narrow body pilots, not to craft an SLI that protects our own and factors in practical considerations central to the very concept of employment such as pay, job security, age, and work rules. A JetBlue Captain should keep his seat, period!, even though SWA FOs make about the same as him, and even though he's probably younger than most SWA FOs, and even though he's not really bringing a seat to the game if GK plans on sub-leasing most of the JB airplanes, and even though he's just received windfall gains in work rules, benefits, job security, etc.

This will suck for you and I in the future JetBlue acquisition. We'll be at a much larger, and therefore growth-limited airline with a bunch of new, younger guys permanently above us on the seniority list. It can be a bit disconcerting to consider that our new co-workers received gigantic pay increases while we got absolutely nothing, we'll try to ignore such selfish reflections. While it's true we won't lose any relative seniority initially, we'll find as we approach retirement that we in fact lost a lot of seniority due to the age disparity between the two groups. All this may be a bit unsettling, but it will be worth it. At least we'll know our sacrifice contributed to noble cause of blind egalitarianism.