Originally Posted by
sailingfun
If you can get a copy of the contract from 07 compare it to the current contract. You will be blown away by the overall improvements in pay and QAL. (Que the but we were in bankruptcy crowd) That happened in 10 years. I also never said I wanted or want small gains. I have consistently stated I wanted a 1 billion dollar a year contract. That would probably have been the most expensive contract in US airline history. I also stated that now even 3 years overdue will be lucky to get near that number. We could have been at or very near that number in 2019 I believe. The 3 billion opener shut down negotiations virtually from the start. It also painted the MEC into a corner. Even had the company said here is 1 billion, you decide where you want it the MEC could not bring something so far off their opener to the pilots. The company was also very aware of that.
Yes if we compare the current contract to the one the company 1113'd us into it would be much better - that is totally irrelevant as that contract was chock full of BK concessions, as you yourself mention above, that were extracted with a sword hanging over the head of a pusillanimous Pilot group that was so beaten down we agreed to LOA 51 (biggest mistake we ever made IMHO). Now that we all agree comparing anything to the 2007 contract (the industry nadir) is a fools errand, lets go back a little further and make some more valid comparisons which frankly I am surprised you did not mention.
Reserve has markedly improved even when compared to before BK and going back to at least C2000. We used to have two SC windows every day and reserve pretty much sucked. Much better now to the point where a lot of senior guys bid reserve. Our vacation value blows but our vacation flexibility with IVDs and vacation slide is awesome. I could go on all night but my Woodford is beckoning so lets just agree some stuff is better, some stuff is worse, but either way I agree with the previous poster who said the company will drag out every contract negotiation as long as possible - especially if the industry norm is to accept six months of retro for contracts over 3 years delayed. If some group sets this standard that would be worse than LOA 51.
Just my 2 cents.
Scoop