The big difference between then and now is our significant pricing power brought about by consolidation and massive ancillary revenues gouged from the pax.

While I have no illusions that this place will ever reclaim lost glory, a marginally capable team ought to be able to keep the ship afloat in an average economic downturn. While I'm very disappointed with our performance as compared to our peers, this is pretty much what I expected. You didn't need to be Bernoulli Nostradamus to see this coming. How many quarters have we lagged (badly at times) DAL? Those guys are getting significantly more in their PS checks.

Outside of making the pax sweat in summer (and freeze in the winter) while at the gate, SE taxi and picking an optimal cruise altitude, what I do at work matters not one whit in the big scheme of things. One widebody full of misconnects will trump my efforts every time. "For want of a nail" comes to mind. More like "for want of a few rampers".

When things do go south, I fully expect the pilot group to be tasked with saving the airline. And again, the chumps will wring their hands and capitulate and the bonus train will roll into Willis station. Pattern bargaining indeed.

Six months saved! But with our current contract, better make it twelve.