Originally Posted by
scrapdog
Noted - fair enough. But in all fairness - please stop the speculation about doom and gloom at CAL. Right now in the present, we're doing well...and that's a fact. You should have learned about representing only factual data from all your powerpoint presentation's at your S word job right? Instead of speculating - don't your blues need ironing?
I made a short reply about CAL in response to JSled's CAL comment. I got drug into a lengthy CAL discussion; not a rathole that I wished to pursue.
Yes, CAL's doing fine at this snapshot in time. So are the rest of the airlines. So why are UAL and DAL parking aircraft? It isn't solely due to fuel costs; if that were the case, those costs would be passed on to the consumer.
Nice shot at my mil leave job. I deal with historic facts, capabilities, and to a very large part FORECASTS. Call it speculation or whatever you like. In my particular job, we use those forecasts to prepare the military and civil authorities (both domestic and allies) for possible future threats.
I return off of mil leave to United on 1 April.
I can tell by your comments that you're very young. You remind me of one my first trips as an FE at United; fall 2000. The FO was ~6 mos senior to me and was bragging about his brand new $300K+ house. Everything was blue skies and smooth ride ahead. I didn't interject, but walked away from that trip thinking what a knucklehead he was; so little understanding of the airline industry.
Your USAFA training has done you a disservice. That fine institution, of which I'm also a grad, did nothing to foster independent thinking. Everything was cookie cutter by the book. Your fighter background has merely reinforced that mindset.
Son, you ain't bulletproof and neither is your company. I did not make any of my comments about CAL as an attack on them; they are well positioned to survive a downturn. However, there is a huge line of TRW++ ahead and your company can either continue to fly straight toward the line or make course corrections to avoid it. I'm betting that they're smart enough to make the course corrections.