Originally Posted by index

Fair enough. Here's some facts.

The latest E&FA Report shows DAL's 3Q13 pretax margin at 11.5%, up 3.7% from 3Q12's 7.8%. As for the 1996-2000 time period you described, the annual pretax margins were 8.9%, 10.8%, 12.0%, 11.3%, and 8%. (And yes, I know I'm comparing quarterly to annual percentages, I just don't have time to pull up the YTD numbers. If you have 'em, by all means post it.) Better shape in 1996-2000? Sure, but not by much.

Further, there are a number of things we as pilots do not control: the price of fuel, interest rates, how much the company borrows, what the company spends its money on (like $1B in stock buy backs and dividends), etc... All of these affect pretax margin and none of them are within our control.

Fuel is one of the biggest cost items for an airline. During the period 1996-2000 the avg price of a barrel of oil per year was $22.12, $20.61, $14.42, $19.34, and $30.38 respectively. What is it now? Do you think that has got a lot to do with our pretax margin? ABSOLUTELY. Sure I'd like fuel prices to stay low, but if they don't I'm not going to fret----or willingly hand over my wallet. And I'm not going to let high fuel prices dictate my worth.

What has CEO and other executive pay done since the "more profitable" timeframe of 1996-2000 to now? It's gone through the roof, pretax margins be damned.

Do you really not think you're worth the $ you were paid a DECADE ago? I know you do, but you're going to have to start making pilot arguments for why this is the case. The problem is we have too many pilots that believe they are managers. Management is perfectly capable of making its arguments. Although it's certainly easier for them when the pilots voluntarily help out.