Originally Posted by
pilot64golfer
They didn't.
L-UAL historically paid A-320 more than guppy. As a matter of fact the guppy was historically the lowest paying airplane, followed by the 727 then the Airbus.
Pilots at United used to upgrade to Airbus Captain from guppy or 727 because of the pay raise. Just look at the current seniority of Airbus Captains compared to guppy Captains. They are senior because they bid into airplanes that were paying more than the guppy.
The CAL NC would have NEVER agreed to paying the Airbus more than the 737 which it should have been paid.
The entire SLI case the CAL side brought was based on pay rates per airplane, and W-2 earnings per pilot. They needed to maintain that myth that they brought these superior paying aircraft to the deal and that would have been refuted with the UAL traditional pay scales.
Good thing it didn't work, and the arbitrators rightly and unanimously agreed that 747s and 777 are Jumbo. 767s and 757s are mid body, and the Airbus and Guppy were narrowbody. They didn't count the 25 787s CAL has on order nor the 35 A-350s and 40 787s UAL had on order.
Now that we are stuck with stupid pay banding it looks like it is here to stay.
When you say the A320 paid more at UAL than a guppy you are comparing an A320 to a 737-300/500. Today we are comparing an A320 to a super guppy, the 737-800 and the super duper guppy 737-900. I really don't mind that the the A320 pays the same as the 737-800. If the rates are the same it keeps people from bidding to a new airplane to chase a few dollars.
Why should the Airbus pay more than the guppy? Now I am confused. You hate that the 767-400 & 787 pay wide body pay because they are not of the same size (and maybe and SLI maneuver). But it is OK to leapfrog the 737 in pay because it is the mighty Airbus. Just for reference an A320 seats 137, 800-154 seats and 900-167 seats.
Delta has some crazy formula based on the aircraft seating capacity, stage length and speed to come up with their pay rates. Delta has a more gradual scale of change as aircraft size decreases. If we just photocopied the Delta agreement everyone would be happy.