Why would it be a disaster for AA pilots during SLI?

 

Where do you AA guys come up with UA/B6 being likely lol

 

I wouldn't expect a merger, both CEOs want ro remain in charge, so they wouldn't accept a merger unless it was a hostile bid. I would expect allowing AS to join the revenue sharing JVs for transatlantic and transpacific flying that already exist in OneWorld. AA/BA/IB/AY and AA/JL, maybe AA/QF as well could all add AS to the mix. It would be a tiny percentage of seats to start, so wouldn't have much of a material effect.

 

Somebody probably used those exact words when management first started using regional feed. Allowing another US carrier to operate WB aircraft with AA passengers should be a red line in the sand. Ten years from now they could be flying 50+ wide bodies carrying AA passengers. Those are our highest paying jobs. Delta and United pilots would never allow such an arrangement. If we lose the Alaska WB grievance we are in trouble. There's a reason scope is Section 1 of the contract.

 

man… I figured flying full size NB aircraft code-shared would have been a red line in the sand…

i agree it should be stopped obviously but just pointing out you could take out WB and replace it with NB or even RJs and we are more than halfway down this mistake of scope already.

 

that’s my guess because AS will claim to be a “peer” citing their newfound widebody and a couple of routes (Tokyo and Seoul). However they have historically been a lower level carrier and you can tell by the number of guys who left AS for AA vs the opposite. AS hired guys at lower qualifications and earlier in their career than AA on the whole.

none of this is to disparage AS guys but they have an outsized amount of longevity etc than is typically possible at a legacy.

a good example of this was the US/AA merger. Airways was able to argue a “global carrier” and “career expectations” pointing at a handful of A330s vs AA which had a much broader fleet and being doing oceanic for decades. I’m not making a moral argument here or saying what ought to be just looking at history and trying to apply those lessons to the situation laid out in front of us.

 

United is the wildcard. If Scooter is serious about merging and does so with anybody then it kicks off merger mania like the 2010s because nobody wants to be left in the dust.

 

i agree I think the industry broadly will go the way UA goes

 

This. The AS team wants to keep their jobs, and they have very deep ties with the Director Class in the PNW. They are more or less boeing's showroom display model airline.

Unless AA's team is open to Doug Parker 2.0...

 

Not really lower qualifications, but people who were willing to sacrifice career expectations for west coast bases (those go more junior today due to taxes/politics, but those of us who have been around remember the opposite). During the brief hiring frenzy, AS did have a lot of people signing on to get out from under legacy regional flow/metering restrictions, who would then quickly depart for big three (which was their plan all along).

That's true, just due to the historically *very* conservative nature of AS management, and less aggressive growth over decades. Some AS pilots claim they like that, but most of us just want to drive to work vice commuting.

After having lately immersed myself in ALPA merger policy, precedent, and history I suspect that the two lists would be treated equally, without any regard for who had a recent WB windfall. Especially since the SLI process will certainly not unravel the previous SLI and segregate AS and HA pilots by previous career expectation (assuming the AS/HA SLI is already done). Both the AA and legacy HA WB slots will be protected in the usual manner and everybody else will largely be treated as DOH NB pilots.