I wonder what the feeling about staying with ALPA will be when Prater signs up AirTran and uses Delta dues money to prop them up?

Some interesting commentary here.

"Our routes" ...wake up...you don't "own" any routes. That went away with Deregulation in '78. So did your "right" to them.

"Your Jobs" A lot of "your jobs" wouldn't be there if majors hadn't signed deals with regionals to FEED "your" planes. Unless you plan of driving that 76ER into Huntsville or Boise to pick up 15 or 20 folks.

Wake up and understand that airline pilots are nothing more than blue collar numbers to management. We just wear white shirts to work and somehow think we are better than the guy who dispatches us, the guy who loads us or the FA who puts up with the *******s in the back.

The problem today is too many of us have forgotten history and believe we are special. Your "I got mine, you regional guys get your own" churns my gut. When you go on strike, they're the first ones you want to support you, not fly and pay strike benefits. And you crap on them?

Smooth move.

As to civilian versus military? Some good some bad on both sides. I've flown with both in my right seat. Personally, I'll take a guy who paid his own way, flew crap planes in a low altitude NE corridor IFR winter slogging it out with multiple legs a day in soaking wet shoes. Not only does he have a much better grip on reality when the magic goes "poof," he understands what it means to come up the hard way. He doesn't have a military pension, Guard or Reserve slot to fall back on when the crap hits the fan, and is much more appreciative of those around him who don't fly the plane, but make it possible for him to.