I am not in the know, nor do I claim to be. There needs to be clarity on this. It may be a good deal. Certainly shoring up block hours is a good idea. Shoring up only 85% of the block hours gives me pause, and I start thinking about buzz words, like "constructive engagement", and wondering if this IS the company's version of CE or if CE is dead on the vine. Then I start thinking about the new flight and duty time requirements quickly approaching, and how that might affect this particular LOA and CE. Then we have Contract '15, and how will that affect the moving pieces. The is a forest through all of these trees.

Then I start thinking of that movement afoot on the Delta property for an alternative union, and how they will spin it as their victory either way. I have never been an I-told-you-so, but suffice to say that there has been ample warning given, and here we are with a problem.

I have no emotional attachment to NRT, but I can certainly empathize with those who do, and I certainly don't need to demean that attachment. Certain people need to realize that their skills are valuable, but that the group will only tolerate so much of their personality. At the same time, if you bring in another bargaining agent, chaos will reign supreme for a time--sort of like bankruptcy--which will simply open the floodgates for the usual suspects to come in and take the reigns again. It has happened, several times. IMO, both of these scenarios are unacceptable.

Back to the topic. If the rumors are true, the company is telling us that possibly 15% of our current block hours are going away. If this is their negotiating end point, I wonder where their starting point was. Even more, they will be possibly be flown by a Japanese company that wants to put foreign pilots in the control seats. I have a basic ethical problem with Delta code sharing on flights that were formerly flown by Delta pilots, who are now flown by expats that are not Delta pilots. Of course, that is just speculation, but not out of the realm of reasonable possibility given press releases and other obtainable information.

What can we lose? All of NRT and the associated code. That's a few jobs, no doubt about it. Since we have protections of those jobs, that would mean a stalemate on hiring once again so that attrition may catch up to the lost flying. I think a more likely scenario is a gradual draw down until an agreement can be reached in another negotiation, like FTDT or the full section 6 coming up. I am also not boned up enough in 5th freedom rights, and how japanese code sharing affects those rights to comment on that side of the ledger, which is why this may be a good deal. Or it may be a camel's nose, which will require several iterations of further chipping away. The devil's in the details, which none of us have. With 10-15 years of draw down, it certainly isn't a big hurry to get this done. People much smarter than I could sharpshoot this thing with a little education. Since that is doubtful you will have to trust in your reps. Hopefully, you have chosen wisely. No matter how large or small the associated LOA, section 1 is a big deal--always.