Originally Posted by PilotFrog (Post 1467694)

I think for Delta, pilots flying the 76 seater routes with mainline 717s has finally become economical and will continue to be so for the near future. The real reason is the anticipated turnover. As we start retiring 400-800 pilots a year, the turnover on the smaller fleet will be tremendous. And thereby allowing the cost of operating the 717 to be low. Of course that is assuming people will progress off the 717 to larger airframes.

Originally Posted by shiznit (Post 1467733)

Thanks, we need many more pilots like you out there advocating involvement. We don't always see eye-to-eye but I appreciate how you keep it above board and mostly minimize the drama.

The blood is on the hands of the members (of which we both are and have responsibility to each other)! They vote for the reps and the agreements.... If pilots do not take the time to make sure they have elected quality people to represent them(and recall them if they don't), and then don't take the time to evaluate and vote accordingly then it isn't the acronym's fault!

There are too many pilots who say one thing and expect something different in reality. It's not practical or reasonable to say "you better hit my lofty expectations" while openly doing things that submarine the efforts to meet those expectations and later complaining that your expectations weren't met.

Having lots of pilots around with stickers and bag tags that basically say "MY NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE DOES NOT SPEAK FOR ME" hurts our leverage and reduces the amount of gains the NC is able to secure for the pilot group. It hurts us collectively and potentially takes money out of OUR pocket. I'm just sick and tired of the DPA's divisive actions, deceit, and outright lies.

Originally Posted by shiznit (Post 1467710)

I have no idea. I wasn't there when it happened. I hope it was a number that made the company side gulp and take a real deep breath, but not one that made them laugh out loud.

I don't care what the opening integer is. I evaluate as purely as I can(we all have inherent bias) based on the calculated economic/goodwill leverage the union has in a given situation. The Company was in an "ok" situation a year ago and I think our peers had done little to nothing to raise the bar around us, everyone(sans SWA) was lagging our deal by a good bit.... Thus we got an "ok" contract.

Come 2015 openers we will expect to have a company going "great", and our peers will have finally bolstered the comparative levels of compensation by large strides...That bodes well for a "great" contract.

Let's hope the LCC/AMR goes through, having top scale A320A's making the same as a DAL 7ERB on 4th year pay, and top scale E190A's making the same as a DAL 4th year M88B makes it hard to pattern up.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar (Post 1467676)

In other news, American reported it has no other plan to exit bankruptcy and will need to start over with creation of a stand alone plan then negotiate with creditors and the Courts if their merger with US is quashed. They estimate that process would take another 2 and 1/2 years. They pulled about 1.5% capacity down starting this fall.

Plane Business Banter put out the analysis created by Brett Snyder outside their paywall .... executive summary ....The DOJ says they relied on an outside consultant for their analysis and is claiming "work privilege" to keep their data away from public scrutiny.

By Popular Demand: PlaneBusiness Analysis Of GAO Report on American Airlines-US Airways Merger | PlaneBuzz

IMHO it appears the DOJ failed to consider what happens to American without the merger and made erroneous assumptions based on growth faries and financing from the sale of unicorn tears.

Originally Posted by Ed Harley (Post 1467430)

I'm hearing that there's a big announcement coming this Friday. Maybe it's the long awaited WB order.

Originally Posted by Columbia (Post 1467789)

Oh, they have a plan B. That's simply posturing.

Originally Posted by tomgoodman (Post 1467828)

A cynic might suspect that completing the merger was plan B. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by PilotFrog (Post 1467861)

Well there goes any chance of upgrading to Economy Comfort. From the latest Flight Ops weekly, with the FAs new Nokias, they can upgrade people on the airplane to Economy Comfort taking it out of the gate agents hands. I assume this is after the door closes, and hopefully we've already been upgraded, but I bet it gets tighter up there. Once people see others doing it on the airplane, they will do it before hand so as not to miss the opportunity thus filling up EC.

The real horror show is when they start allowing that to happen for first/business. Or they could go the route of what some are doing in Europe and auctioning off those seats as it gets closer and closer to departure.

Originally Posted by Columbia (Post 1467866)

Non-revving is a choice. :D