I didn’t really understand what JB was saying until this clarification. I was more of the thinking of gone fishing, in that they can hardly afford to “drive our costs up” with our snap up, as it’ll drive their costs up too. I do see a point to giving their top group a disproportional raise, which would cause all of our rates to go higher and asymmetrically increase our pilot costs vs. theirs, but how much of an affect will that really have on our bottom line? And will it hurt us enough to make a big enough difference? In other words, would the juice be worth the squeeze?

I really don’t know. The safer play is to give their pilots equivalent raises and any money left over being directed at work rules and retirement. I’m sure when it’s all over, UA, AA, and DL will all have really similar pay and retirement savings numbers, and the only differentiation in our contracts will be work rules and QOL.