That is above the rest.... the best of the best... the truly ultimate operation in the industry:

That is Regional Elite Services, or better known as the ground handlers for the regional airlines.

Regional Elite handles some of my flights, but I thought all Delta flights were handled by Delta employees even at outstations and all of the regional flights at the same outstations were handled by regional employees. That gives the regional airline a cost advantage we could never have if we operated the same type of equipment they do?

(please note, many of my posts are me being sarcastic, or just plain b****y)

:D

Ferd and Maddog Max solved the whole TA problem (plus many others) last night in Amsterdam. I'd share our results here but the bartender made us sign a non-disclosure.

Sorry

Ferd

DTW-HKG stops SEP 1.

I jumpseated with an American Airlines crew yesterday, both St. Louis-based and former TWA. The FO was a 1990 hire, was furloughed for 5 years, and is currently an MD-80 FO. I told him that at Delta he could hold a 767 Capt position with that DOH. They both said that Delta is the place to be right now. Also chatted with an AirTran Capt this morning who said that with the transfer of the 717's, he'll lose his Capt position and will retire as an FO based upon their seniority integration with SWA. When I look at the situation at other companies it puts our disagreements about the TA in perspective. Either way, we're still better off than many of our contemporaries.

Very true, but remember that this company is here and successful because of the sacrifices this pilot group made half a decade ago.

That AT CA/SWA FO will still have a higher W-2, have more days off (including weekends and holidays) and pay less for health insurance than a similar DOH at delta. 2 buds who are 2001 hires at SWA (senior FOs) had 2011 W-2s of $165K and $175K, all holidays and 90% weekends off and averaged 16 days off/month. Wonder how that would compare to a 2001 hire at DAL in the 737, even post TA?

ACL & Columbia, don't get me wrong, I voted No. I guess my point is that other pilots at other companies have very unique struggles.

On a different weird note, I was eating breakfast at my cheap hotel in a bad part of town while on reserve and I hear what sounds like a gunshot. After 24 years in the Air Force shooting thousands of rounds of ammo, I know what a gunshot sounds like. I turn around and see a woman covered in an exploded hard-boiled egg. The eggs are served cold, she microwaved it, sat down and BOOM! Now that is a science experiment!

Back to contract stuff, I talked with an AirTran FO yesterday who said that their pay rates will be SWA rates sometime in 2014.

You seem to be making an assumption that whatever gains we make in the TA will be “potentially short lived and temporary.” This of course is ALWAYS possible no matter what any contract provides, but it is completely irrelevant to our negotiations. Going back to the table to get more now doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have to get that up as well if concessions were required in the future. We can only hope that with each contract we get, we will see some sort of improvements that don’t go away, but there is certainly no guarantee of that as we all know. In the future, if things get really, really bad out there, we may be volunteering to give up positive things we scored from even previous contracts. Look at what we gave up prior to bankruptcy. Let’s just hope we never go there again. P.S. Too bad we can’t have the yes voters live under this TA and the no voters can go on fighting and take whatever gains they can get down the road.:D

Hmmmm, it seems like I've heard that before. Oh yeah, from the American guys.