Did he let you touch his monkey?

Delta's Military Leave Handbook is one of the best documents I've ever seen on the requirements and the law concerning military leave of absences. They follow the law exactly and expect the military member to do so as well.

I think the number of military folks on long term leave (so they can get an active duty retirement) is dwindling (I could be wrong). Long term orders are drying up. The only folks who I know are doing it ... or did it ... are the fellas who were booted after 9-11 and they're entering their military retirement season this year.

He is, and don't call him Shirley...

Nu

Scambo, it was a good read. A friend of mine in the oil business thought we were nuts to buy a refinery that was never "profitable". I don't think he or any other oil guy saw why Delta did the deal and SD does a nice job of explaining it to us. It's all about the crack spread (no FTB we don't need pics).

So what Delta and SD are telling us, is that know more about the oil business than the folks that are in it do.

At the end of the day, Delta will have to write the investment in Trainer off.

"Touch my monkey, feel his texture" :D

Cheers
George

P.S. this is se part of Schprockets were we dance...

Here's some other food for thought: PA kicked in a chunk of money for us to buy it. We kicked in leveraged money - which as I understand it - was not necessarily DAL money, but basically money given in advance of jet fuel use... It cost us less than expected to refurbish it. It's going to (through fuel swaps) cover 80% of our domestic fuel use at $.15/gal lower price than our competitors. The oil it refines is going to come from the US.

Ya'll know I'm not a cheerleader or koolaid drinker, but IMO, this is a supreme coup. Now that it's pumping gas, I am interested in seeing what its effect on our debt position is going forward as well as it's effect on our profit sharing positions.

191 is definitely more than 300, am I rite???

Clamp,

No. But Sailing does have a very valid point here. If 300 Pilots age 63 and 64 years were to have taken the early out then all Pilots junior to them would see a temporary advance in Seniority. Temporary in the sense that the seniority bump would evaporate over the two years when anyone over age 63 would have hit the mandatory retirement age regardless.

This would yield a temporary bump of 300 for lets say an average of 1.5 years yielding a gross total 450 pilot years of advantage. ** If however 191, but lets just use 200 for even numbers, dudes retire early at an average age of 60 that would yield an average of 200 times 5 years for a gross total of 1000 pilot years.

In the above example 1000 is greater than 450 and I believe that is what Sailing was referring to.

To summarize 300 very old (average 63.5 years old) gives a larger temporary seniority bump but for a much shorter time. 191 old (average 60 years old) gives less of a bump but provides the benefit for a much longer time.

I would like to point out that both of these advantages are just temporary and yield down to a zero benefit in about 5 or so years. The work rules that we gave up are forever, or until "We get em next time!" So while better than nothing, early retirements are like getting that third shot of espresso in your Starbucks - it feels good but does not last!


** These numbers all assume that you are junior to the early outs. Obviously if you yourself are a geezer :D and are senior to half of them you would only receive half the benefit.

Scoop :)

Tex,

You could fill a small book with the mistakes that the DAL management teams have made over the last 20 years, but I don't think this was one of them.

Time will tell, but I personally like this move.

Scoop