Another delusional take.

I wonder if Ripinpeace is Trip7’s alt account.

I have to agree with rip on this. The exact things you cite are the opposite of the recent IROPs. Those were systemic failures due to poor leadership and the feeding frenzy post deregulation. My opinion is that there was some driver in 2025 to maximize profit by limiting cost. I think when early 2025 revenue tanked for pollical reasons that scared them. The reaction was a moratorium on spending which was obvious to us doing the actual operations. Pilots, scheduling etc. I had a dispatcher say they were renewing the push for min (covid era) fuel also. I think that was temporary because the market has stabilized and continues to be robust. The tariff effects have waned and airframe deliveries and engine issues are becoming more manageable.

I think 2026 will be the international growth year that 2025 was supposed to be. Glen leaving and Ed planning his exit/successorship means we are potentially headed to the past were none of the up and coming C suiters have any experience. The biggest threat isn't IROPs because we have the template to correct that and a little money will go a long way to fortify the brand by stabilizing the operation. The threat is a change in mindset that returns us to the 1990s philosophy of route dominance over brand image. The company is a consumer brand now not an industry tenth player trying to build a network and out wit rival operators.

The industry has matured into a healthy competitive balanced stable system of transportation. Yes, the IROPs need to be addressed but what built this company into what it is today is market rationalization and a focus on profitability over route dominance at all cost. The next leadership team will have a "vision" for Delta and I hope it's more of the same and not world domination through reckless money losing routes for routes sake. United has a larger international operation and there is room for us to smartly open and compete in some of those areas, especially in the pacific but we can't lose sight of what has made this company an industry leader. That is brand and revenue management. The financial side of the house has and will dominated and direct our future. Yes, operations need to improve especially IROP recovery but that's the easy fix with manpower, equipment availability and maintenance touches. The harder part is revenue management and the discipline to stay the course as a consumer brand and manage for profitability versus a new (old) vision of dominating an industry through rapid expansion and market share.

You cannot be serious. The only management "identity" is Bastian posing for selfies with groupie stews and Tom Brady. He purged all of his potential successors. The people who are really running the place are running it into the ground, with extreme toxicity and arrogance, and he doesn't care. He'll be gone the moment things get iffy, with enough money to last him and his harem for the rest of their lives.

Stick to Austin pilot base gooning, please.

If "move heaven and hell" means burning the furniture, you're absolutely right. How long until they run out of furniture to feed the fire?

About 6 months after EBs retirement.

This keeps getting repeated by a few, but it really doesn't mean its relevant any longer.

First, pre-2018, we had far less open time because trips were constructed with better buffers. Things simply broke less. Fewer broken trips, no rational fatigue policy, and far fewer rerotues.

Second, when they called you, they weren't proffers. Yea, same argument about IAs, and yea, there was some percentage of pilot group playing the game, but the fact of the matter is if someone called, a large percentage of the pilot group was going to take the trip, so it was a game of odds, and the odds were better then that someone would just take the trip. Truth is, there were substantially fewer GS, so people not only jumped on what was offered, people hoovered up open time at straight pay. Very few trips ran the gauntlet of open time to make it to GS.

Third, once inside 3 hours, there was no 10 minute window. They rolled calls until they found someone to take the trip, or someone senior called back.

The fact is, at this level of open time, you're not going to cover it in any reasonable amount of time with either a manual or automatic process, unless you go to a UAL system where it is first come first serve, and I'm really pretty sure none of us wants that. This problem needs to be solved a different way.

I wonder if we got batch sizes and kept Auto Accept for in base, but had neither batch sizes, nor Auto Accept for any OOB slips of any color, how much of a difference that would make? No, I am not suggesting we give this up for free.

Doesn’t UA just rely on an over staff of reserves vs DL who would rather rely on premium.

This is an alligators approaching the boat situation. They need to cover further out in a more timely manner which means more premium and sooner to entice people. If the manpower both in scheduling and pilots is to remain as it is now, then longer timeline premium is the only fix.