Originally Posted by
DashTrash
First of all, when DAL accepted and ratified an agreement that had 76 seat regional jets, that became industry standard. It is incredibly difficult to negotiate for more restrictive than industry standard. It becomes a game of what are you willing to give for it. Second, SWA is not a fair comparison because their business model is totally different than ours. They don't feed into a hub and spoke system. They have a linear route structure. Also, it was Legacy Airline Pilots that allowed scope concessions for more pay over a decade ago. Once, the horse is out of the barn, it's awfully difficult to get it back inside the barn. That's why DAL's TA is so important and so will ours in the future. When you negotiate a deal, you really have to look at it as the language is going to be there for a long time.
I see another huge threat to our scope as seen at DAL, which is less restrictive language regarding joint ventures or code shares.
That is the traditional thinking.
Going forward, I hope we start ignoring the "industry standard" concessionary deals.
We negotiate with UAL management. That's it.
I don't need a new contract. The one we have will suit me just fine if the alternative is to give up more jobs.
I don't want DAL pilots to negotiate for me. I really don't care if the company whines about the "new standard". I'll keep pointing at Southwest, Jet Blue, Virgin and all the other airlines that do their own flying. We CAN negotiate that way. We're just afraid to.