Deal or no deal, these are very interesting times. I have no opinion on whether we should entertain an extension offer from the company, and trust that my reps have a better strategy than anything I could come up with.

However, this is the first time in my 20+ years here (LUAL) that I've seen an offer come EARLY. It is usually pulling teeth to get them to show up at the table for a few years after the amendable date. This in and of itself is fascinating to me, and makes me wonder what has changed to facilitate this new strategy. Perhaps it was the fact that Delta pulled it on us last negotiating cycle. They knew they were going last so offered their pilots a good solid contract (given the at-that-time negotiating environment) which forced United to match and increased our labor costs many times over what it WOULD have been. With DAL's failed TA, SWA's and FEDEX's soon to be failed TA, plus AMR's "me-too" clause kicking in in 2016, perhaps this is an attempt from our management to drive up the labor costs for the rest of the industry by going first in the cycle. Very interesting times indeed.