Oy.
RAH is loaning money to Frontier purely as a business venture. Those involved in the decision came to the conclusion that it was a sound investment, based on information that neither pilot group will ever see. There is a solid precedent for this in the Commuter World at DCA, where Republic owns most (if not all) of the parking spots.
Most of the pilot group at our three companies (myself included) are not happy with this decision. Although it is admittedly a brilliant move on Bedford's part, it does not sit well with us as pilots. Unfortunately, we were not involved in the decision. It is important to keep in mind that the pilots who post on APF are the vocal minority.
As far as our pay: it sucks. We know this, and most will readily say so (remember: vocal minority). When our current contract was signed, 170s weren't even on the horizon. Now they're here, and we don't earn enough money to fly them (unless you believe the podcast that said our 190 pilots are paid too much to get any new flying). Fortunately, there is a wonderful tool in place to fix this problem: the current negotiations on a new contract. Everybody would like to see improvements in our contract. The problem is, we have such a wide range of operations across three certificates and who knows how many bases that it will be impossible to get a majority to agree on a great contract.
If you're one of our 140 pilots based in STL, especially if you're senior, you probably don't care a whole lot about duty rigs or DH pay. The American Connection flying offers some fantastic trips with not a lot of sitting around or riding in the back of planes. If you're an IND 170 pilot, trip/duty rigs and 100% DH pay will fatten up your paycheck a lot faster than a token pay raise.
I'm afraid that the seeming lack of unity in the RAH pilot group (and lack of faith in IBT) will cause us to end up with another middle-of-the-road contract and payscale. I look forward to being proven (notice the correct spelling) wrong and hope it happens.
Wait, what was the question?