It's going to change, so get your hopes up. I know the crowd around here is for the most part continually negative, but how could anyone believe the 450 for all of 2018 or whatever garbage number that's been published when we have that many retirements alone?! Sometimes you just need to not think too deeply at what's been said, and most certainly take the emotions out of your analysis. Once you can do that, then look at what the company has done.

Let's start with the investor call about a year ago. "we have some initiatives we are going to implement and test out before we fully commit".... That's a hint at growth if there ever was one, but when you're at a go big or go home point you need to make sure your playbook is fixed and set because these are multi year decisions that could ruin you if done incorrectly.

What's Kirby been saying? We can be the biggest airline, we are going to defend our hubs, shrinking is not the answer to profitability, United is an amazing opportunity because of the network and structure, LAX we need to compete in, terminal 9 is going to happen, we must fly mainline into competitor hubs, we need to rebank to more effectively connect pax, gate space issues can be mitigated some by upgauging, etc.

What's Oscar said: No early retirements because we're about to embark on a major growth initiative. We need to focus on the more lucrative domestic side as that's been ignored, but still fly international where it makes sense. Must enhance customer service and passenger experience.

Don't remember who, but most importantly, it was said we aren't going to disclose everything for competitive reasons. Hmm. Now if you could hire all day from Frontier and Spirit, who also happen to want to grow in hubs you want to dominate, and this hiring would create staffing problems, would you want them to know what's on the horizon for pilot poaching so they can lead turn their impending problem? This is a bit conspiracy theory, but totally plausible as one way to stifle growth is to not have the necessary people to do the job.

What has the company done in last year? Major tng center investment. New base in Denver. Enhanced Hawaii service to become largest carrier. Look at all the new service from SFO. Lots of 75s into Seattle now, so more seats in a market we should have never left. Payne Field announcement. Engagement with LAX for term 9. Reopening of IAH 787 knowing damn well that would be egg on the face. Interviewing in the XJT CPP that's never stopped. Tons of new RJ service locations and mainline into competitor's hubs-which Kirby first said needs to happen, and it has! Mainline grew 10% last yr, or a number close to it so don't quote me, but it exceeded all other carriers ML growth. Lots of staffing shifts to become more efficient, granted this may impact some pilots QoL so your opinion may vary on it. Rebanking in hubs. Upgauging in lots of places. Polaris. FA ability to compensate pax on the spot. Going to stop here.

Oscar and Kirby have said several public things that if reversed on would create a total loss of confidence from the BoD, imo. In the publicly traded corporation world, you can't just throw comments out there you never intend to follow through on like you're a young Capt in a Squadron bar. You need to develop a strategy, test it, then commit to implementing it if the test goes well. That's business. Telling all your employees something to get them excited then totally changing course could happen, but if that was your strategy you sure as hell wouldn't announce this to the rest of the corporate and investor world. Anytime someone has does that to you, what has that done to your faith in their leadership ability?

It's a good time to be at United. If I were applying somewhere that would see a fair amount of instant seniority, this will be the place.