Originally Posted by copy

Cheaper labor eh? I’ll caveat the following with the fact that I was a staunch no voter. But I’d argue that oh about 1/3 of the AA guys (ya know the ones that have Eagle painted on their planes) are their “cheaper labor” that is, notably, owned and controlled by AA and provides revenue to AA. Our new codeshare is 1) specific to only NYC/BOS where AA was shrinking and not able to compete on their own and 2) there is no revenue sharing with this code share, and 3) lets AA keep access to a market they otherwise were not able to do well in, even pre-covid, and would have had to shrink more anyway, especially post-covid. Right before covid hit JB got 20 slots at JFK that AA had been squatting on. What’s better...shrinking and becoming less and less relevant, or shrinking but still having access to the customers? Vasu has said RJs won’t be at JFK when all is said and done and that they will be replaced by JB and mainline NBs. Soooo less RJs and more mainline NBs and more connections to fill struggling WBs? And new WB routes made possible by this codeshare? Yeah. Ok. Sounds horrific. Maybe a thank you is in order in place of the outrage. The industry is better off with another major codesharing flights than the lowest bidder regional flying it.

Also, let’s address the “cheaper” part. JB pay scales aren’t much different on the bus than AA’s, and JB 190 pay scales are higher than theirs (though now that 190s are parked at AA it’s mostly irrelevant). I’d also say JB has a lot of other things in the contract that close the gap some on compensation ($13/hr for the whole leg if any part of it touches 0100-0500; if you get rerouted and finish more than 2 hours past your originally scheduled pairing, you get an extra 5 hours at 200%, 6 days of holiday pay, and some other stuff that adds up). And how many contracts have AA pilots been through vs JB? Prior to this contract, JB pilots had no contract, and a lot of guys voted yes just because we literally had nothing to protect us other than status quo/RLA. How much bigger is AA, with proportionally larger revenue streams? And last, how much is scope worth? For the small percentage difference in pay, even without some of the other things we have in the contract, that alone is worth a big chunk. How much would you give on pay rates to have all 584 AA or 430 DL RJs flown in house? Or in the case of DL all those sweet Aeromexico 787s to be painted in the DL livery. I dunno. What’s your price to sell scope? $5/hr? $20/hr? $50? Wonder what it’d cost ya to get it back? Rhetorical question because it ain’t coming back. You lost it in the worst of times and let it stay the same or even get worse in the best of times (C2016)...all I kept hearing was this mythical pilot shortage would naturally fix your scope issues. Uhhuh. Good strategy. Seems to have worked out well for you guys.

Look I’d be ****ed if my airline couldn’t compete against DL and B6 in NY/BOS and was shrinking in that region. I’d be doubly ****ed if my airline couldn’t compete in multiple regions and both coasts. Oh yeah, where’s the outrage with Alaska’s more comprehensive codeshare with AA? AA pilots have zero-scope-Alaska, using Horizon and SkyWest pilots to fly AA code because AA couldn’t competitively do it organically, or with RJs, in SEA (and everywhere else Alaska is codesharing and growing (well their regionals anyway)) by themselves. But AA should be ****ed at jetblue pilots now? GMAFB. Where is the Alaska codeshare outrage thread? I wouldn’t be ****ed at or blame the other airlines’ pilots. I’d be ****ed at my own collective bargaining agreement that allowed all sorts of capacity purchase agreements, joint ventures, codeshares, alliances, etc.

I mean come on...even WITH almost half of daily departures outsourced to regionals at below B scale wages, and with widebodies (many codeshared or JV’d mind you), and with being the largest airline in the world, and with all the ancillary revenue streams made possible by that fact, AA still can’t compete in the largest metro area in the country with an airline that doesn’t cram seats in planes, doesn’t outsource RJs, still has free internet and TVs, and otherwise doesn’t skimp on hard/soft product? I’d be ****ed at DougWeiser, not JB pilots. I’d be envious of scope language that gave me instant leverage in dire circumstances that equated to job protection (and simultaneously provided growth opportunity). And I guess I’d be happy Vasu is at least preserving the marketshare by partnering with dominant players in those areas in which my own airline couldn’t compete.

Yeah...only AA guys have a right to weigh in here in a thread that literally has “JetBlue” in it. Meanwhile all these pompous legacy guys wanna pile on to JB guys...you can bet jetblue guys will respond. Take your fake (or misplaced) outrage and condescension (and your 15% pay cut offer) and stuff it.