Originally Posted by
oldmako
I think you've got some apples mixed in with the oranges. I don't care if my PI is a Captain or an F/O, only that he's sharp and can install things in my thick cranium.
The "screaming" about creating more Captains that you refer to stems from the fact that for the last three years you guys were minting new Captains at a frantic pace. I remember a thousand or so posts concerning the number of Captain seats WRT the eventual ISL list, or grab.
Most of those new Captains were flying out of SFO, LAX, ORD and DEN, traditional LUAL domiciles. All the while, we were applying suction to the rearward most teat (unable to bid on those positions) and supplying the capital for the new airframes. A subtle distinction I know, but a distinction none the less.
Can you imagine if the tables were reversed and the company bombarded EWR and IAH with a boatload of new airframes that you guys were unable to fly? I don't think we were out of line, but then again I'm a bit of a malcontent.
Same old argument, different day.
My point about captain positions had nothing to do with your above statement. Everyone here fully understands what you guys think about the merger and the bids prior to ISL. My point was that in every conversation I have read on this forum, I have been hit with arguments about creating more captain positions. The best example of this was in pay banding. I was told that by banding the rates, there would be less training events and thus less captain positions and that was a very bad change.
Under the CAL system, the instructors were all captains making full 12 year pay with numerous other benefits. Ironically a lot of them did commute from Denver so the commute issue would in fact be moot for them. But under the UAL system, the positions are limited to FO pay capped at 9 year pay. This is a giveback as it dramatically reduces high paying captain positions for capped FO positions. My point was that it appears on the outside that the instructor group perhaps does not want TK to be a good deal so that others don't move in to their turf. Given a lot of them are Air Force Academy folks living local this may just be the case.
Just surprised that UAL so willingly gave up benefits that were already in place as their base negotiating stance.