Originally Posted by Aero1900

The one thing about our current state of affairs that I just don't see any solution to is our place in the contract cycle.

I can see how a lot of issues can be negotiated to a level of reasonable satisfaction but our place in the cycle is tough.

A "snap up" or "market rate adjustment" would be a fantastic accomplishment but it still doesn't fix the fact that we are hopelessly far behind in the cycle. The only way the company would agree to any snap up or market adjustment would be too a peer group that none of us want to be tied to. Think Allegiant/ Avelo. No way is Frontier agreeing to being on the hook for pay rates associated with the next round of legacy contracts. They just won't go for it.

I do fear that between the business model and our place in the cycle we are forever destined to be at the back. I just don't see a way out. We can't wait for Delta or Alaska to secure their next deal, that's just too far away. And Frontier isn't going to agree to a very short deal either. They obviously want a 5 year deal, where the best case is a 4 year deal but either way we are in a bad spot.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm by no means doom and gloom. I expect and trust that Alpa will deliver is a good contract with solid gains. The next contract we have will legitimately be a career contract and everyone will be able to build wealth and retire with ton of money in their 401k but I don't see any way that we get on par with the legacies. It's a rough combination of where we are now, who we are and when everyone else is negotiating.

There's so many parts to a good contract and so many different priorities I'm not sure where a snap up or market rate adjustment fits in? If we could get language that says we snap up to Delta - 5%, I'd be willing to give something up for that, but if the language is we get a one time snap up to an average of the companies view of our peer group, I don't think I'm willing to put much weight there! I'm not giving up anything to have language tieing us to Allegiant and Avelo.