Hmm, I've experienced both ALPA and SWAPA. I'd pick SWAPA if given the choice.

 

Only if you are on the SWAPA side of a merger!

 

Talking about a merger.

 

And that may be true. I’ve never been through a merger.

 

I was with Air Tran and I’ve never been through a merger either. But, I have been through an acquisition. I’m thinking mergers might be better.

 

We didn’t have 12 year FOs. 6 year FOs were very senior.

 

The SLI was a staple for roughly 60% of our FOs, FYI.

As for a huge pay raise.....hmmmm. Funny, it was a little different for me. I lost almost 4 years DOH and 32% relative which earned me a nice 3 year downgrade after being a not so junior B737 cptn for the previous 7 years. That “huge pay raise” that I got showed up as 20-25% less in my take home pay.

So who’s getting flagged for BS now?

 

Let’s just call a spade a spade here. The SWA/AT deal was a gun held to the AT pilot group’s head. NO ONE on our side thought it was a fair or good deal and yet well over 80% voted to accept it. Think about that. What does that tell you?

Make no mistake that the same threats will be hurled towards the Alaska pilot group (or Spirit or whoever). You’re dealing with a pilot group and union that actually proposed putting ALL of our pilots on probation once they transitioned over to the SWA side. Yes, even our most senior cptns. Yes, you read that right.

So just keep in mind the pompous mentality & attitude that we’re talking about here. Be careful what you wish for.

 

Merger probably would be better than acquisition. I’ve never been through either... just a shutdown. I think my point about ALPA is that ALPA exists to serve one or two airlines and will not always be there standing up for the other groups when things get rough.

 

Let it go whack. I wasn’t here when that all went down, but the amount of acrimony that still exists is because guys like you just can’t move on. At best it was a tie, at worst some AirTran guys got a little bit hosed. The worst part in my opinion is that lives got uprooted when a lot of pilots were forced to relocate or commute to atl. It is what it is, though, and considering the turbulence of this business, the fact that all the pilots kept their jobs when the vast majority of their aircraft went to a competitor says something.
We are all one group now and the vast majority of FAT pilots that I fly with are great guys who get what happened. There are just a few, though, including one individual that I had to endure for 3 days of training, that can’t seem to accept that they work for a different company now and the sooner they integrate, the better their lives will be. I am a firm believer in the 520 mentality. I don’t care where the money comes from or how it magically appears in my account.