Originally Posted by
LCAL dude
Every time I hear a lUal pilot spluttering that their career expectations were to retire as a Widebody Captain (even if they're currently on furlough) I have a flashback to flying at Express with all the Riddle Grads with SJS, all bent out of shape because the airline didn't realize they were "God's Gift to Flying" and we should just get out of their way and give up everything to them.
You may have expected the retire as Widebody Captains, but I know a lot of pilots going far back in history who had their expectations crushed by mergers.
Any ex-Pan Am pilots here care to chime in?
This sounds to me like you added 2+2 and got 73. In fact, it makes absolutely no sense at all. Career expectations in a traditional sense are very easy to track. I've been a Captain since 1999 and with a standalone United, would have retired in the top 10. OF COURSE you make some assumptions when trying to calculate career expectations. One, that the company will survive alone, and two that it won't merger. Neither one can be assured, for ANY airline, but that's not the point, and DEFINITELY not for ours, which have 3 BK's between us. At the point of merger, neither airline was being run by a management team with any talent whatsoever. This is being demonstrated daily.
The point is, part of merging two pilots group is to consider career expectations of the pilots of each carrier. It is one factor to be considered. The assumptions are no real growth or shrinking, survival, and no merger. Plug in the retirements and you get a number. It's not rocket science. I don't have a clue what you are talking about with your SJS over there, but everybody understands that career expectations are a calculation to be made to help determine a fair and equitable list. It isn't the end all, be all. Just one of the factors of the ALPA merger policy. You know, the document the LCAL Merger Committee completely ignored?