The problem with waiting until the TA is finished is that it's too late then. I do kind of believe that if we had voted no on C2012, things would have been dragged out longer. I think the FA's were in the middle of a union drive. Had we sent our contract back, RA wouldn't have wanted to send the message to the FA's that unions can get them a lot more money, so he would have stonewalled us.

I'd rather have the opportunity, like we did with the CDO's, to head things off before we reach a TA but I know that's not possible, really.

Once the TA is done, it's over in my opinion. The sales job starts full force and every venue has it's share of DALPA guys fighting for a yes vote. I guarantee, and this isn't a slam to my fellow pilots, but it seems every vote ends up being 60% for, + or - 2%.

I remember during the second round of pay cuts, during BK, I felt the cuts were more drastic than necessary. I told my rep this during a lounge visit. He said, very diplomatically, that I needed to gather all the information I could and make an informed decision that I thought was best for me and my family. I said I had read all the information and I was voting no. He started arguing with me that I hadn't seen the company business plan and the fleet plan. Great things were right around the corner [Im paraphrasing]. But basically he was saying, once he saw my opinion differed from theirs, was I didn't have the information he had so I should just trust him.

If I just vote yes, the biggest aircraft order in the history of aviation was going to happen as soon as we exit BK, was another talking point from Gold bug Jr. on the DALPA boards.

The company knows we are suckers for aircraft orders. I'm surprised we haven't heard of any big new orders yet. They're saving their ace in the hole for two days after the TA is released I guess.