We had this happen in the UAL/CAL merger. The day before the SLI result was announced a vacancy bid with about 250 Captain slots for only CAL pilots went out, since CAL management was running the airline and they wanted to ensure their pilots grabbed as many slots as possible. They were for training in as much as a year in advance. Then right before the fence fell for the 747/787 management put out a massive 150+ pilot bid only for 787 (so only CAL pilots could bid it) and they again locked up the next year of slots. It ended up that the junior 787 Captain went to almost 30% on the overall list, which unheard of for WB Captain.

I suspect that this could be something like that. No reason to do this right before every pilot can use their seniority to bid, especially when its this obvious.

From management's perspective there are some big reasons to do this. Primarily because if guys can use the opportunity to bid between fleets it increases training churn and expense. If pilots bid from Airbus to 737 and open slots on the airbus that 737 pilots bid to then you potentially can create 2 or more training events for every 737 slot offered.

I believe it. When we had 4% growth they said they would hire/upgrade the same numbers in 2019 as we did 2018. On the Bus side that was literally about 24 upgrades and ~32ish newhires. Now for 2019 the revised growth of 2% means half the plan. With the Buses being repainted and taken out of service for several weeks to do so, block hours will take a hit. Hard to say what happens on the Boeing side but 2% is not good for them either. It would not be surprising if this was the only upgrade bid for quite some time.

I’m actually a little concerned about the D word which I think is a real possibility on the ‘Bus side.

Jaded, one sided former UAL Pilots view. Airline had to be run and stagnation to appease your side of the fence wasn’t an option. Who’s airframe orders were those pesky 737 and 787’s anyway? :cool:

Amazingly way more UAL guys flooded onto our aircraft bid after bid than the CAL guys did with your aging fleet post SLI.

You’re welcome.

And where were all those pesky 737s and 787s flying anyway? Hint, not on any routes that CAL ever flew before or had any hope of flying in the future, absent the merger!

The post SLI movement would have happened in the same manner for the legacy CAL guys, if the pre SLI bidding had been done based on where the aircraft were being used rather than who ordered them.

Hey! You guys go fight in the United section. We have our own SLI to complain about. 😂😂😂

Oh yes we do. Just wait tell around Oct 11th.

Wish you guys luck with that as it sucks for everybody.

For the most part nobody cares anymore how it panned out and it is what it is. I did get to see a funnily ridiculous sight in our SFO Ops lounge. A Captain all decked out in his legacy United uniform, (the one issued before the merger), replete with old wings and old hat brass AND his old expired United id badge hanging right next to his current one.

Bet he's let it go and is a blast to fly with. :D

That’s because there were 7,600 of us and only 4,500 of you. I don’t recall any CAL pilots not taking bids in LAX, SFO, ORD, IAD, or DEN. So you left your legacy bases and we left ours. Just like AS and VX will have. Its a good thing we had the cash to order and pay for new planes or CAL would not exist anymore...which they don’t.

Think we were asked to cease and desist but this line cracks me up. Once again, revisionist history and by your definition I should be thanking you for saving our airline. :rolleyes: