Good post and your skepticism is well placed.

I think his point is those of us on both sides who were harmed by the merger are actually uninformed and have no idea how bad it could be. Of course, this position is the opposite of ALPA's position before reaching an agreement to support the merger. For it's part ALPA has certainly kept it's end of the bargain.

What would have been is only hypothetical. Just because he writes Delta and NWA would have lost billions and have thousands on the street does not make it so. In fact, fleet optimization points to a contrary conclusion as does the hundreds of millions in costs which we have borrow money to finance. Would Delta and NWA's business partners continued to have done business with us absent a merger? Of course they would have.

What bugs me is those who deny what was and those who wish to re-write history so it looks like they saved us. Frankly the MEC did a good job. Denying what Delta brought to the table really isn't necessary.

ALPA did what was best for ALPA and what was best for Delta & NWA pilots given that they could not stop what was coming and wanted to avoid a US Air style meltdown. That is all true. Still, for a lot of pilots this merger was, is and will be bad news for years to come. Apples and Oranges. Two different things.

I've given up posting numbers from trends observed in form 41 data since that really makes people mad. But, the trends I observed three years ago have only accelerated since the merger. As ACL observed, a person could look at the repeated displacement bids and conclude that the Company is getting pilots in position for a furlough. I'm still thinking furlough letters will go out in September of this year, to be effective in December, right on schedule with the the DC9 retirements and end of the seasonal flying.

As always, hope that I am mistaken and I certainly have been wrong about a lot of things this fall. I see no reason to put money in the market right now, yet this fall we have seen valuations based on PE which have exceeded historical highs. Meanwhile ACL sounds like his investments have made so much money the SEC is camped out in a van in front of his house. I hope he is right about new bases, new jets and hiring. I'm pretty sure we have got to actually make some solid money before any of these trends reverse their direction.