I saw a 73N A on his third GS for the month.. and still half the month to go.

Am I the only one that thinks the company doesn’t even have an “opener”? If I’m Ed I’m looking at simply extending the deal with a few % per year at most. I wouldn’t be looking to blow anything apart.

I admire your attention to detail and wish to see it in your every post, but like Hillary yelled at senators during Benghazi hearing - “what difference does that make?”

It is a laughable amount of improvements and walking away from the table after meetings schedule has been agreed on is a lousy thing to do by the company.

Finally we are negotiating from Up Down instead of the other way around :)
We should ask for 300% increase and then settle down somewhere between 300% and 28 million!

The dudes are buying time for some reason.

Time=Money For management
Time=Less money for pilots (start the Time Value of Money thread derail)

Management likes money. Therefore, management wants more time. To get more time they are buying it... cheap.

There is no retro for QOL and scope. Those are two major areas of the contract we are asking for gains. They need to kick the can past the summer before improving those areas otherwise the operation will collapse. The good news is that Delta is expecting us to have QOL improvements. If we were headed for productivity concessions, we would have a contract yesterday.

We're asking the company to fatten up a lean operation so we have the staffing required for better pilot QOL. If pilot hiring ever catches up and the 737 MAX returns to flying, we may have the necessary staffing for the QOL improvements we are seeking.

That doesn't explain their behavior though. Its very reasonable and even common to have big ticket QOL improvements phased in. If we get significant vaca day (pay and credit for the LCW is mandatory) it wouldn't take effect for the 2020 vacation year. It could go to 4:15 for 2021 and 5:15 for 2022 for example. Gives them plenty of time to prepare for it without effecting summer 2020 in the slightest. Same for just about everything else. DH QOL improvements could take effect immediately (or after a fake delay for IT implimentation LOL gotta love that one).

So getting through just this summer doesn't seem like the reason. Also if its tue that they slid a POS section 23 across the table with even the smallest of concessions as some are saying, they may really think we're dumb enough (or can be bullied through the threat of lost TVM) to give them more prodctivity (aka QOL hits) to get whatever 6/3/3 they think we'll bite off on. Nope. QOL has to improve and much of it has to undo the QOL shredding optimizer "we didn't think they'd do that" hits that have occured since the last contract.

Now your other point about them simply pocketing their designed delay of QOL impovements is certainly valid. Those private islands aren't going to buy themelves.

There's no doubt, but it's not "some" reason. It's the ridiculous, "let's give senior captains a large lump sum payment as they walk out the door" idea.

Or the company can drag their feet indefinitely and save $200K for every pilot that retires prior to an eventual agreement.

Given the large retirements ongoing, and scheduled to accelerate, now comes the inevitable "gee I can't imagine WHY the company would want to drag their feet."

What's amusing is the idea that all the upcoming retirements and associated training "crisis" somehow gave us lots of leverage. Even if true (and I am not buying it) the retirement proposal eviscerated that hypothetical leverage.

We're in for the long haul now. I'm glad we were wise enough to reject TA1, and also wise enough to ratify TA2.

While I agree it's a big ask, I highly doubt it's just that. If that were the case then we might have had a few more responses to some more sections. They are stalling to get through the summer before they drop the bomb on us about how they really feel about us. We are just numbers on a spreadsheet where they have said they want to keep costs as low as possible. So dispite what roses flight ops tries to paint they are going to ask for more QOL concession.