Contact Capt. Dalton, JFKFO for a first hand version.

And, I'm glad to hear the CAL brothers are fighting the seat conflict, but that doesn't change the "tenor" of the issue or the response of Capt. Bowers to be so impolitic nor the glaring misread of the contract that will most certainly be found largely in favor of ALPA once the issue of a "no showing" cabin passenger is resolved. There is a HUGE difference between assigning the business-first seat after all coach is sold out versus the issue of MOVING a business-first customer after coach sold out and then someone in coach no showed. I'm no lawyer, but I am sure the negotiators did not mean "the last seat assigned in business-first" over the last seat assigned on a full airplane, full in coach and business.



If these stories are stepping on the toes of CAL pilots, then please accept my apologies. It was not my intent to put anybody down, but rather to say that we can and should stand up for our contractual rights ALWAYS. Contrary to remarks above, it has been my experience that VERY few UAL pilots will EVER waive contractual rights. In fact, in my first week at UAL at a meeting in ORD with several hundred pilots, I made some inane remark in public based on my commuter experience about "going the extra mile for a great company" and I was soundly put down by several pilots who explained how it was NEVER ok to waive our hard fought contractual rights and since that time I can not count the dozens of times when I have expensed cabs, walked to a new hotel, refused an assignment, and sat while watching a plane pull away without me or the captain because our proper dead-head seats were not made available. I just had a sense that that culture is less prevalent at CAL and I hope we can agree that IF the UAL culture proves to be "tougher" that the CAL brethren will look at that as a positive and not a negative.