You are confusing different programs. The PRP and PERP are not the same. The early retirement program was designed to make room on the list to bring back pilots off the street. You retire 600 guys early that makes room for 600 pilots to go back to work. The furloughed pilots in question were not covered under the arbitration you mention. The company had no obligation to bring them back. The second batch of pilots furloughed were covered under the arbitrators ruling however most of them were back at work by the time the early retirements started.

What I recall about the PRP :it was sold to us as a stop gap measure to give the company time to train the replacements for the mostly wide body captains that all signed up for the early retirement. Then they didn't post a bid for quite a while. Lots of the PRPs worked until their 60th birthday. They also told us there was a pot of $, and if guys close to 60 took the retirement, less would come out of the pot and more than 600 was possible. That didn't happen either. Never again.

Are you seriously kidding me. I'm not pointing to either program, that is you. My point is that neither group of furloughees were brought back by any program done with the company. The FM I guys came back due to the 3 month ruling. The FMII guys came back also because of a ruling saying the company over stepped by claiming FM the second time (invasion of Iraq). I'm not arguing that more guys leaving is good. What I'm stating is that it had nothing to do with bringing any furloughees back on property as you have stated.

I would respectfully disagree because 1,400+ piloys were expressly involved in arbitration overseen by Mr. Bloch. The FM1 pilots (you know, the biggest pool - 1,400 ish...with TK at the bottom) were most certainly covered by a Richard Bloch decision which predicated their return from furlough upon an economic happening - return in ridership measured over a moving 3 month period. There was some bitter irony in Bloch's ruling because the "no furlough" clause that governed at the time (from C2K) expressly excluded economic conditions as a basis to furlough, yet the return of the 1,400 was expressly predicated o an economic happening. (Lest the argument start, I am not so naive as to see that clause as intransigent - if the survival of the company is at stake, a no-furlough clause has little meaning).

Of course, while 1,400+ were out on the street, pay raises kept coming to rates well above ours today (when adjusted for 13 years of inflation) and greenslips flourished. All of that was contractually compliant but, in the view of many FM1s, ALPA kinda lost the meaning behind the unity concept of "union" during that period - when times are good, we all do good together and when times are bad, we all hurt together.

I advocated at the time to forgo the pay raises and use that money to provide each furloughed pilot with 3000 per month. You would not believe the emails I got from some pilots at making the suggestions. Most said screw the furloughed guys it's my money. One who posts on here often told me to stay out of his wallet furlough was just the business of airlines.

I came to this thread to read about the feb 21 AE results and now we are debating furloughs? Come onnnnnnn.

Anyways, I am intrigued about this early retirement option. How would one go about getting this? I have 30+ years left and would take a buyout to cover my house and a little more spending money :)

Proud ER A: "do you know how long it took me to hold your seat?"

New Hire: "Dude. I was the plug in my new hire class, I had no choice. I was trying to get ATL717 or ATLM88... really wanted ATL320."

:D

Also got the ER as a new hire and I have had more than a few A's look at me like I'm crazy when I mention bidding to the 73n or 320.

Well now we know #QOLmatters. Silly, isn't it.

Training/Vacation question. I've had my bid in place for over a year and was given an award this AE. However, I wasn't thinking about changing my preference to for maintaining my vacation. Looking at where I sit in the award, I have a feeling my vacation will delay my training start date. Is it to late to let them know I'd be willing to move my vacation rather than have it delay training?