Originally Posted by Buck Rogers

Some things I have learned over my career at Delta:



1. Work smarter, not harder.



2. When someone says seniority, it's doesn't just mean overall system seniority.



3. Don't chase the money by bidding to be very junior in higher paying equipment and expect to sit at home and not fly. Delta makes money when pilots are flying, more money when pilots are flying more.



4. Delta wants pilots flying 83 hours/month for regular lines (1000hrs/yr).....and reserves flying 50ish.



5. For every pilot flying his ole arse off, some are purposely doing it.



6. If you are a new hire, and have no system seniority or BES seniority, expect to fly ye ole arse off.



7. If you're new and you are not flying ye ale ares off, count yourself lucky and realize that that is not managements desire and will prolly change.



8. In over 22 years flying international as FO and Capt, I have never had to work too much, more than I wanted, or been unable to get rid of trip(s) to massage my schedule.



9. Delta will never have a problem filling classes with top notch pilots, nor will they have a problem pushing those pilots through the pipeline.



10. There will be occasional staffing shortages in some circumstances, this is not entirely due to mismanagement(though it certainly can exacerbate it) but they eventually work themselves out.



11. Look at the retirements for future years/decades....the huge retirement bump(2020-2025) is ameliorated....Delta purposely staggered the new hire ages to reach an average of 300-350 per year for every single year for the next 30 years. Delta can learn lessons. 30 years ago Delta hired a homogeneous group(90% military, 32 years old, 1000pilots /year for 4 years). Now it's roughly 50-50 mil/civ and all ages. Chicken little "sky is falling" will prolly not come to fruition but time will tell.