ApachePhil

And I suspect the cognitive testing required to become a pilot at Delta would preclude any successful pilot candidate from making such a financial blunder.

ApachePhil

Like you, I don't believe there will be many takers. Probably not enough to preclude many involuntary furloughs.

I'd like for ALPA and the company to come up with a voluntary furlough. Those will, indeed, save jobs. Maybe not many, but 1 for 1, they will save an involuntarily furlough. I know a few guys that would take a voluntary furlough to avoid commuting to a lower paying airplane and especially at concessionary rates. I'd bow out 24 months to avoid that kind of suck.

7ERASEA

WHy everyone is feeling generous, what are we going to do for the Deadzoners who have faithfully served Delta for 30+ years and are forced to leave the company with a substantial cut in standard of living I will venture to say no one will have close to the 60% FAE that was in the contract when they joined Delta and made life long decisions based on our contract, ie, not staying in reserves after 10 1/2 years active and 3 years reserves because that source of retirement was not needed anymore

GliderCFI

We'll let you keep your seat until retirement, provided you're senior enough to hold it while others are out of work.

In all seriousness, has ANYONE ever retired from an aviation career that had zero hiccups, slowdowns, pay cuts, etc? We're hourly shift work. It's a gig that lasts a career, if we're lucky. DZ'ers aren't as unique as they like to think.

ApachePhil

So. Detla is to blame for you getting out of the reserves at 13.5 years? If so, who is to blame for those that stayed in the guard/reserves?

I suspect you regret the consequences of getting out, and somehow, in your mind, Delta is to blame?! Using this event to re-litigate precious events tells me everything I need to know.

GliderCFI

It's also his first post. Pretty good DZ impersonation though if trolling. Points for that.

Schwanker

Still waiting for previous furloughees to be made whole. Lost retirement, Zero income/DC contributions for 5+ years, followed by years of Bankruptcy contract. Lots of people here have a story to tell.

WhiskeyDelta

I’m owed a unicorn. It’s Delta’s fault if I never get one.

Scoop

Isn't the unpaid LOA basically a voluntary furlough? Not sure what benefits go along with it but perhaps they could be sweetened up a little.

Scoop

BobZ

As may perhaps be the case now, there are pilots who joined the industry over the years with an erroneous perception of its stability and security.

This is an unstable industry. It historically has only been a marginally profitable industry. It is a capital, labor, and energy intensive activity.

Since the 1950s it should have been apparent to all that employer owned pension plans had a high risk and record of failure, and at their core... And at scale, are economically unsustainable models.

Further airline specific examples should have made the stark reality unavoidable. WAL. EAL. PANAM. CONTINENTAL. TWA.

As a new hire delta pilot 30+ years ago in regards to the pension...I asked the dalpa indoc guy if he was saying what exists now is going to exist in 30 years....in the airline business? The affirmative answer informed me it was in my best interest to never listen to anything else he had to say.

The south pension was a ponzi. It was never real. In the tradition of pulling up the ladder, the pre '72 pilots who signed everybody after them up for the deal.....built in a trap door to protect themselves.

The unqualified component was accounted for as an operating expense by delta....and for us it amounted to nothing more than an iou in a paper sack from some faceless ceo 30 years down the road.

Stupid. There were pilots who saw the danger. Voices were raised. With WAL and PANAM pilots joining the fold we even had personal accounts of the looming disaster of a pension plan.

With the '96 contract the company admitted it could not afford to pay the negotiated pension benefits. Yet it took another decade, and bankruptcy for this group to act.

We were the crew and pax on the 'unsinkable' pension ship.....heading straight for the iceberg.

It would have taken a Captain and crew to admit to the pax....the ship really isnt unsinkable. And on top of that.... we also dont have enough lifeboats if the unsinkable ship should sink.

Imho dalpa leadership viewed telling the pilots the pension was an at risk and a failed economic model as popular as politicians telling voters we are broke and raising your taxes.

Meanwhile management parlayed pilots attachment and faith in a ponzi into a 2x4 to beat us up with every amendment to our contract.