Originally Posted by SailorJerry (Post 1351589)

You revert to long call status at 23:00:00. They can technically call you any time. If you aren't on SC, or X days, you're on Long Call. That means the earliest report they could give you is 11:00:00. If they pop you for something during the SC shift, however, you can be released from SC and given a rotation beginning in as little as 8:00:00.

Originally Posted by alfaromeo (Post 1351311)

I found out a long time ago that if you step up and actually do something to improve pilots' lives, rather than just writing about it on a webboard, that you will subject yourself to this type of personal attack. I am so used to it by now that it just rolls off me like water on the windshield.

If you ever decide to get off your butt and actually do something, then you will find out that solutions are never as easy as they seem. It is ironic that the same people that go ballistic on this forum over the "FLY" button on the Delta safety video, then act as if there is a "GET MORE" button at the union office, and the only thing we need to do is push that button and money will flow like the Mississippi in April.

If it were that easy then someone at American, or United, or Continental, or Southwest, or US Airways would have pressed that button a long time ago. Remember American took 6 years and they never found that button, Airtran 7 years, United 3 years, Continental 4 years. Why oh why did they not push that button? Is it just that Carl, and TOGA, and Purple knew where the button was and didn't tell them, or is it because that button does not exist.

I think you can tell that the button does not exist. There is only one thing. Work. Grinding, difficult, stressful work. Of course you don't know that because you have never done it, instead you choose to denigrate those that work on your behalf. But hey, we have a free country so you can say what you want. I just ask all the readers to decide which theory is more plausible; is there some magic button to push or is there just a series of extremely difficult problems to solve and solving them is neither easy nor free of problems. You decide.

The fact is that our deal was the trigger that broke the entire industry out of the bankruptcy era. United followed us. American is directly hanging onto our coattails. US Airways is just along for the ride with American. Without our deal, we are stuck for years and years in stasis.

So launch away with your attacks it makes no difference to me. I know what I did, I know what our team accomplished, I know what it meant to the industry. Almost every negotiator, professional and pilot alike, has expressed their gratitude to the Delta MEC for breaking out of the logjam. I value their opinions over the webboard guys any day.

So I am now much happier that I have peeled off those layers of responsibility layers that affected me both at work and at home for too many years. I feel no remorse because I gave my time, now it is someone else's turn. In the most difficult times I always relied on this quote from Winston Churchill:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

So I have stumbled, I have fallen short, I have dared and lost, I admit to all those failings. But I was there, fighting the best fight I could and others were sitting on the sidelines carping and crying and complaining. If that makes you feel superior then go ahead. I don't see it that way. I have a camaraderie with those guys that I fought with that will last my lifetime. Those are just as important to me as the monetary gains that we achieved. I only wish for you that you can get off this mountain of bitterness that you have built for yourself and get involved in some positive action to better the lives of those around you. You seem to be a particularly unhappy and bitter person. Your attacks mean nothing to me as you aren't in the arena, you aren't fighting the fight, you are just a brick thrower.

I hope that didn't bamboozle you.

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 1351535)

Couple of things, it's hard to do a comparison of like sized narrow bodies between a fleet that consists mostly of 737-700 sized airplanes paying the same as our 747s and a fleet of MD88s and 90s that are larger who pay less. I agree.

Did you see the numbers I posted? It's based off of the numbers SWA posted.

As to 88 utilization, at the moment (February) or for the year? I remember hearing over 50% of the departures in ATL last summer were to be MD88s. When one of ours breaks in ATL is seems as if it's hard to find another.

We've heard the 757s in Asia are inefficient, but they're lumped into the domestic BH number (the one used for the DCI ratio). Some of the 757s are old too are they not? Are they being used to their max?

And the 753s seem to fly a lot from ATL-MCO, that's not a long flight. Some of those 737s and 757s are running common 88 rotations as well.

So unless you have annual MD88 hours, I'm going to use the average.

Originally Posted by johnso29 (Post 1351511)

Who is seeing more productivity? In my category less then 20% of the reserves fly at all during the entire month. That's right, they fly 0 hours. Where's the increased productivity?

Originally Posted by Jack Bauer (Post 1351603)

This is based on the current "over staffing" due to nonstop capacity reductions the past few years, but you already knew that. The situation will dramatically change as management continues to not replace retiring pilots "right sizing" staffing while continuing to outsource. Give it 24 months. Instead of guys reporting lots of time off on reserve, every reserve Jr an Sr, will be flying up to contract limits that were just increased (including more SC periods) in C2012:(

Originally Posted by Timbo (Post 1351518)

I'm stunned and amazed at just how inefficient Delta really is, when you consider all the different aircraft types, +717, we will be operating! Just consider how many pilots are tied up in training, plus all the instructors, for all those different fleets, plus fleet captains, etc.

Now throw in the cost of buying and holding all those different spare parts, and training the mechanics and F/A's and gate agents, how to deal with all the different types. I'm amazed we make any money at all!

IF and when Delta mgt. ever decides to thin the fleets (ie. park all the 767's/757's for 737's) there will be a huge surplus of pilots, no doubt. This will take a few years obviously, but long term (next 10+ years), I expect them to consolodate and eventually have half as many different aircraft types as we have today. BUT...the bottom line is, with regard to SWA, no company can be as efficient as they are, unless you also operate only one fleet type.

Back in 2004, I had Jerry the Genius on my jumpseat going ATL to AMS about 6mo. before he declared bankruptcy. We asked him what the long term plan was, aircraft wise. He said eventually they would like to have only two fleets; the 787 for all international flying, and the 737 for all domestic flying. And if I were king at Boeing, I'd be making their cockpits identical, and pushing for a dual type rating for the two of them.

That was then, this is now, and RA2 doesn't seem to live by that rule, quite the opposite, seems he's never walked away from a yard sale empty handed...but I wonder about the additional costs of adding fleet types. Sure the airframes are cheaper than new ones, but what about the added costs of training people, and more, different parts, etc.? That has to get figured in there too.

Originally Posted by Jack Bauer (Post 1351603)

This is based on the current "over staffing" due to nonstop capacity reductions the past few years, but you already knew that. The situation will dramatically change as management continues to not replace retiring pilots "right sizing" staffing while continuing to outsource. Give it 24 months. Instead of guys reporting lots of time off on reserve, every reserve Jr and Sr, will be flying up to contract limits that were just increased (including more SC periods) in C2012:(

Originally Posted by Scoop (Post 1351609)

The thing that is being left out of this discussion is revenue per pilot. Although SWA Pilots and DAL pilots are pretty close the last time I checked it DAL pilots actually produce more revenue per pilot despite these inefficiencies.

Scoop