Look. You either subscribe to the idea of "pattern bargaining" or you don't. I don't... at least not to the degree you and guys like Alfa do. I think it's but one of many factors that affect us and not by any means the sole determinant of what we're able to get.

But let's go with your beloved pattern bargaining theory. Primarily because of the success of our company, our pilot group has been in a better position than anyone else in the industry to achieve gains. Like it or not, we've been in a leadership position. If we had come out of bankruptcy and immediately made it clear to all concerned that restoration was our goal, I think we'd be further along than we are now. That's just my opinion (because there's no way to know since we didn't try it), but it's an opinion based on the knowledge that it's almost impossible to achieve something difficult and substantial without first defining it as the objective, formulating a plan to achieve it, and then executing the plan with resolve. That's Success 101. We have not done that. In fact, just the opposite, our leadership in DALPA have poo-poo'd the idea every chance they get. I don't think it's a stretch at all that we've set a low bar (relative to the objective of restoration), set the tone for our industry, and as a result, made it more difficult for other pilot groups to "pattern up" to anything like restoration. We have been in the leadership position in our industry. And we've set the tone and pretty well established that restoration is not the goal.

See above. I want action too. But I want appropriate action... action aimed at achieving our objective. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we don't HAVE an objective!

I'm not following you here, T. I'm excited for our new hires. This retirement setup (if it stays in place throughout their careers and they don't take on too much risk in the way they invest) should make most of them multi-millionaires when they retire. Even in my case, having lost the pension about halfway through my career, I'm on track to have an income in retirement that will be comparable to or even better than what I would have had with the pension.

I'm not complaining in the least about retirement. To my way of thinking, increase our W2's and then the increase to our retirement benefit takes care of itself. 15% of a bigger number is... well... A BIGGER NUMBER.

Anyway, the point I was making is that I think you should have more respect for the value of what we do as professional airline pilots. To think that we could be devalued by almost HALF (due to an extreme emergency with the industry's financial crisis) and then just accept a significantly reduced value as the new deal going forward (when the industry is clearly way past the crisis and our company is making incredible profits)... well, I think that demonstrates a lack of proper respect for what we do. You're a line check airman, for Christ's sake! Of all people, I think you should know better.