Any thoughts about when the HND slot swap decision will be announced?

Probably just a few weeks. The slot is dormant (Delta is not currently using the slot) so it's just a matter of gathering information and making a decision. Then there is the appeal time frame. Again, probably just a few weeks. I think DL has a good case for SEA service to HND, but I think we're going to lose the slot anyway, probably to UAL. At that point, we might have a good enough reason to go after HA.

He was saying that if we lose the slot and it goes to HAL, then we acquire. Not before.

Oh I agree with the timing. I think HAL or UAL (in that order) will get the slot (GA based DL versus a HI or Chicago based airline? Fuhgheddabowdit!) and then we'll announce HAL, if its going to happen.

The story is true. I had confirmation from an old retired guy. I can't remember the name. The pilot in question was being counseled by Pre Ball, back when we had real Chief Pilots and not pencil pushers.

Went to the Flight Ops roadshow in AMS today. My take is that it doesn't look good for hiring in the near term. 2 757's to be retired next year vs 10. No growth to Europe, SEA to be expanded as Asian hub, and need to grow South America. Mergers were downplayed especially HA.

Thanks... sounds about in line with the SD updates. Question: Do you mean that the original plan was to retire 10 757's from the fleet next year and now the plan is to retire only 2?

Yes, they are keeping 8 757's that they had planned on retiring. The crew resources guy was very vague on hiring. All based on the magical 2013 marketing plan. My take was , don't hold your breath. World economy is'nt helping things.

This was posted on that other board, some of you probably read it. It wasn't posted in response to DAL, but DAL is a micro part of the macro world. I thought it was a pretty clean kill and actually not too wordy for what it conveyed. I wish I could write like him:

In a world where we approach an impending Fiscal Cliff, face a Taxamaddon, have unacceptable levels of unemployment, record low levels in the Labor Force Participation Rate, where we continue to set records in the number of Americans who need of food stamps eat in an electronic breadline, have seen our .gov's credit downgraded not just once, but twice, and threatened a third time, see our diplomats killed as the Mideast Islamic world burns, watch as at least one embassy is burning it's classified documents, because in that attack in which the Ambassador to Libya was killed, classified documents were also lost, where the ragtag, illiterate Taliban in Afghanistan, riding around as is their wont in man-dresses and on horseback, as they twirdle "Dirka, Dirka, Dirka", or whatever, can succeed in destroying 6 Harriers, and seriously damaging another 2, as all 8 sat on the ground, along with killing the unit's Squadron Commander--in a loss of 8% of the entire Marine Corps Harrier fleet--effectively making a US combat unit combat ineffective, where Russian and Iranian troops are on the ground in Syria, but that's OK, because Syrian jets are flying over Lebanon, where Japan and China are rattling their sabers at each other--a potential conflict which raises a central question, where Greece is failing, but that's the good news because Spain is failing too, and they're worse than Greece, ......

In my squadrons, we had an "off the record" book. In this book, we would record, with great flourish, every major and minor screw up and humorous event. Basically, if a person did something that another person found dumb or funny, the observer would write the story down with embellishments to enhance the tale. DAL needs something like that to preserve the (absolutely hilarious and presently completely not allowed) off color history.

The world is messed up when you are supposed to feel guilty about laughing at something...that happened.