Originally Posted by buzzpat

Not a big deal in my mind (yet). ATL and DTW make total sense. I'm a little surprised that NYC isn't one with all of the LGA options.

Originally Posted by Superpilot92

Hook'em Horns!!

Originally Posted by Boomer

At first I thought I would be buying food with my $7,000 severance package.

Now I think I'm going to spend it on the biggest computer monitor I can find.

Originally Posted by bigbusdriver

90% of the pilots where surprised that regional service was going to be replaced with regional service? Even the Cranky Flyer dude knew that it wasn't going to be all mainline. Pilots repost all these news blog stories here all the time and everyone missed the fact that the aviation press was reporting the truth? I can't find a single article or press release saying there will be jobs and flights out of this just that Delta will benefit and that there may be a chance that we see more flying after they get done building the hub up with marketing and all that silly money making stuff.



BBD,

First of all when did anyone say "all?" Second, what we started out was about 4 mainline flights - pretty far from "all." Thirdly, yes 90% of the Pilots were in fact surprised with the number of RJs flights on the initial rollout - but why shouldn't they have been? Did our management not solicit us to support the slot swap with all the "mainline" growth that it would bring? No one is saying anything about blog posst and the Cranky Flyer - guys are responding to what our management told us.

Finally, I guess you missed this part of my post:

In hindsight perhaps the company should have been a little more forthright about the initial RJ rollout. They have been pretty good about explaining it after the fact, but many feel we were initially mislead."

Scoop

Originally Posted by Jesse

He's just keeping us in suspense. Of course we are! We signed the TA, and as SD said in his update when we were deliberating the TA, a YES on the TA was going to be, to paraphrase, a step that would very likely lead to hiring in the 4th qtr this year. I was worried that the concessions we gave up in the TA regarding more flying for reserves, SCs, and loss of X days during the summer months would mean a need for less pilots. But that concern was allayed by my union when I was told the improvement to vacation would dictate a need for more pilots. So rest assured, we're going to hear about it any day now--hiring is coming soon!

Originally Posted by sailingfun

The contract is not going to be even a 1 percent factor in if we hire or not. It will come down 99 percent to the block hour plan for next summer. The economy will drive that.
Just for your info there were lots of areas in the contract that offset the job loss not just vacations.
1. Improved vacation pay
2. Improved training pay
3. Known absences counting toward a reserve being full.
4. Reserves full at the reserve guarantee instead of ALV.
5. Additional X days per year per reserve pilot
6. Elimation of trip parking. (this one was not costed out for jobs since it was a unintended side effect of the swap board.) Fixing this might offset all the job loss from ALV15 and 84 hours.

The above items are all of the top of my head without evening looking at the contract for other items. As far as hiring or not hiring it bears repeating a common phrase. "It's the economy stupid."

Originally Posted by Flamer

Point of the original post was that there was a carrot signaling hiring this year. As soon as the TA was signed that went away. Smells just as fishy as the LGA slot swap. How many times do you think the average pilot can be tricked in such quick succession?

Originally Posted by finis72

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't believe SD said anything about starting to hire this fall. I think he said hiring would start in 2013 with possibility of starting the process (getting ready for hiring) in the fall.

Originally Posted by sailingfun

The contract is not going to be even a 1 percent factor in if we hire or not. It will come down 99 percent to the block hour plan for next summer. The economy will drive that.
Just for your info there were lots of areas in the contract that offset the job loss not just vacations.
1. Improved vacation pay
2. Improved training pay
3. Known absences counting toward a reserve being full.
4. Reserves full at the reserve guarantee instead of ALV.
5. Additional X days per year per reserve pilot
6. Elimation of trip parking. (this one was not costed out for jobs since it was a unintended side effect of the swap board.) Fixing this might offset all the job loss from ALV15 and 84 hours.

The above items are all of the top of my head without evening looking at the contract for other items. As far as hiring or not hiring it bears repeating a common phrase. "It's the economy stupid."