Daldude,

You think the merger is the reason for your decline in seniority?

I have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). Google Now (Siri in "Apple Talk") works beautifully! It's very responsive and understand speech really well. Check out YouTube for some "Google Now vs Siri" videos. Pretty funny stuff! Icrew Max works great. You have a couple options when it comes to email and calendar. You can use the native support in the device or purchase calendar or email apps from the Play Store. If you have Gmail, just install the Gmail app. If not, then there's an app that comes on the device that can sync your email with any email provider. My battery and phone quality are great on my Nexus. The S3 is supposed to be a major step up, so I'm sure you'll be happy with the S3. You can PM me if you have any other questions!

Unfortunately, the Market decides how much "Growth" there will be in this industry, with or without mergers.

When Delta merged with Western in 1987, oil was about $20/bbl, Delta had no west coast presence, and Western had no east coast ops. That merger actually did create "Synergy" and subsequent growth, as Delta added flights from their east coast hubs, to feed the west, and vice versa.

Delta already had a bunch of brand new 767's and 757's being deliverd. The Western pilots benefited with access to those newer, higher paying airframes being put into their bases. The 'east' pilots lost those seats when Delta put them into SLC and LAX crew bases.

And look at how many former DL pilot bases are closed today, vs. former WAL bases. BOS, MIA, HOU, MSY, ORD all gone. SLC and LAX are still here, add SEA and MSP from the NW Merger, and just about every former Western base is available to them.

Today, times are a lot different. The US Economy is STILL in the toilet, 11 years after 9-11. And with Oil over $100/bbl. industry consolodation is the new mantra. Mergers today are looked at as a means to reduce competition and Survive, not a strategy to Grow into new markets.

Now look at what's going on in Europe. Think that has an impact on our International flying?

And you can still buy an airline ticket from NY to Florida for under $200 today, just like in 1987, even though the price of fuel is up over 500% since 1987.

THAT's why we are shrinking our way to prosperity today, vs. seeing the growth that came as a result of the Western merger.

Until we see the economy pick up, which won't happen until fuel prices come down, we are going to see a more shrinkage in the US Economy, and our industry.

iCrew Max = Great!
Microsoft Outlook = ... not sure ... GMail integration is perfect across multiple platforms to keep everything linked and snyc'd. With Android you are probably going to want to port over to Google's product, it is just so much better ....
Commuting Apps = Great! Faster, easier
Voice Command = Sort of Broken :( ... was great ... now Siri like

The GIII is a data hungry animal (as is the new iPhone 5). Suggest a solid, fast, network like AT&T or Verizon. Our family have been Sprint Customers forever and Sprint hosed their network up, then began chasing the iPhone crowd which clogged their EVDO speeds down. I think we get a 23% discount on AT&T. Been thinking about trying them.

Now GO GET YOUR PHONE !!!!!

To add ...

Demographics are what they are. People have been moving South since the invention of air conditioning made the South comfortable in August. NWA's passenger base was moving away from their network ... nothing against NWA, but people simply moved away.

If you graph NWA's capacity, pre merger, the trend has continued. It infuriates NERD to no end, but if you consider we are run by f-NWA management and have to deal with NWA's network, it is what it is.

We are labor. We did not make the call. We simply have to make the best of the pump and dump engineered by our hedge fund owners ... and I think the employees of Delta Air Lines from ramp agents to Mr. Anderson have done a terrific job making something very good from terrific ingredients.

With Global Warming and juniority, we may move North. It is 73 in Atlanta right now. I can remember being excited to play football one Thanksgiving because the temperature made it up to 50. Our temperatures are like Miami's when I was a kid. We are also starting to see different threats from more aggressive types of Termites and other pests, which have not made it into the State in years past.

Guess I should plant some bougainvillea.

No, my seniority has not declined on the overall seniority list. I lost like 1.78% relative seniority during SLI.

My original post was in response to some one making an observation on slow progression and I had a mini rant on my slow progression as a 2001 DAL hire.

The other poster had mentioned his continued decline and bidding power in ATL. (not on the list as a whole) and I had another little rant concerning my hire groups loss of bidding power in certain bases ATL, SLC, and LAX. I would argue that the MEM guys have had it much worse.

I also made the silly statement about the Western merger which I actually had no information on and have been corrected. I had no idea that there was such massive growth following it. I did apologize for making that statement. I've actually never seen growth.

However, it appears to me. That in certain southern and western bases there has been an influx of pilots that have exercised there right to bid those bases and as a result I have lost a fair amount of bidding power or been displaced.

I guess ultimately i was moving slowing forward up until 2008 with the exception of the half decade on furlough and now with every single bid since 2008 I move backward at least in LAX, SLC and ATL. I would have moved forward in MSP and DTW.

2001 was a bad time to get hired for everyone in this industry, obviously, with the events of 9-11, subsequent bankruptcies, economic meltdown in 2008, etc. The good news is, Delta hasn't closed your base, yet, so you don't have to sell your house in a down market or commute to reserve.

Remember, it can always get worse.

Richard seems to be protecting Delta from another economic downturn, with his "Capacity Restraint", while also staying ready to add flying, if the economy picks up next summer.

A friend of my wife has one and hates it. Says it repeatedly does not understand her voice commands to the point that that feature is completely useless. Apparently the apps crash or bog down too much as well. She may just have a lemon, but it's hard to prove and she doesn't have much of an alternative other than paying out the wazoo for a different phone. YMMV

Yeah, that damn global warming we brought on ourselves. Wish we could go back to midevil times when there weren't so many people warming the planet up with their flatulence and aircraft and we never had mild winters or hurricanes, ever. Maybe if we can get some revenue from the polluters we can turn this whole thing around that man created. Car manufactures and oil companies should be willing to hand over more from their billions in profits to fix what they did to this planet. :rolleyes:

Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong You're WRONG!

Feeling a bit more fringe today, Bar? :rolleyes: Yikes.... This is up there with some of your more paranoid and out there posts!


(see, NERD, it's possible to disagree with someone on the internet without turning yourself inside out and blowing a fuse)