If I remember correctly, I think we had a few guys go straight out on military leave right after indoc. I'm not sure if it just happened that way by coincidence or if they somehow planned it out, and honestly I could care less. They're not breaking any rules. So if anyone has a gripe it should be that seniority should be based on years of actual service with the company and not merely date of hire, but that's a whole different discussion altogether, one that is creating some degree of consternation amongst some of the CAL and UAL guys with regard to their recent ISL.

Either way I'm not overally concerned with it seeing as those pilots are senior to me no matter what. While, yes it might be bothersome to see some guys ride out the seniority train off company property only to come in ahead of a junior pilot, that same bypass pilot may have been the difference between getting the base, position, and/or schedule said junior pilot wanted for years.

I don't know any bypass pilots personally, but I'd that'd be a whole lot of work and aggregation just to avoid flying the md88. Any pilot that intimidated to fly the md88 should probably do some soul searching regarding a long term career as a pilot. It's a stretch, but a majority of us are all one bid away from being displaced to the md88 at any point.

I'm not saying your wrong just that I'd be hard pressed that our bypass guys are bypassing to avoid the md88. Who knows though, I have been wrong before

I know a lot of furlough bypass, and not one that I know had a thing against the MD-88. It's just once you've been burned with the whole furlough deal, it takes some convincing that your not walking into the same trap again as 12 years ago.
Most had another gig that was at least stable. Some bypassers went from planning on never returning to realizing that DAL was the best flower in the manure patch of the airline industry, at least for this month.

I had a soon to be returning furloughee tell me last year, "Thanks for flying my crappy trips. I have a pretty good gig, which I hate to give up, but I'm will soon be forced to quit because I have to come back or lose my seniority."

Flying the MD88 should be MANDATORY! It's a character building experience that should not be missed.

At least spend a year on it, so you'll learn to never trust the automation, and you'll learn to appreciate air conditioning in the summer, and heat in the winter, and brakes on a slippery runway.

Like flying a tailwheel airplane (or in the weather in a T37), you'll be a much better pilot for it, if you survive it.

Remember;

Boeing builds airplanes.

McDonald Douglas builds....Character! :eek::D

Bottom line, it is what it is and we junior pilots must accept the reality of yet another push down in bidding ability. At least the effect is being ameliorated by Captain slots opening up, which are growth and retirements.

Going forward with SLI results intentionally NOT being status quo, there is going to be a lot more grumbling as one side or the other has furloughed pilots who would have otherwise not returned coming back to a sort of windfall. It can be generally be stated that the airline which had furloughed, also had recall jobs which were none too popular. In the meanwhile the other airline's pilots may have been displaced down into a job they did not want, at a base which did not exist pre merger, earning longevity by working those jobs. (not just thinking of us, also thinking of United/Continental)

After our merger, I tried several times to obtain leave to go work elsewhere until I could at least return at my pre-merger status quo. Delta management declined to allow leave greater than 12 months, which made getting another job while holding Delta seniority impossible.

It is understandable, when the merger dynamic is involved, that some junior pilots feel they've been slogging though an out of base displacement to a bad gig while others opportunistically game a windfall to come back to the job the junior guy held at the DCC.

Just saying, I understand the complaint. Not defending it. It is what it is. Changes in merger methodology result in greater disparities and inequities which are difficult for those who get pushed down in category and status to accept gracefully.

This is the other side of the coin from those who look at their date of hire and feel it is unfair. Can't blame those guys for complaining either. No one is going to be truly happy until we get past this stagnation ... in our case it appears that relief is coming sooner rather than later.

The issue is caused when one carrier has longevity accrue when furloughed and one doesn't. Just like Delta and NWA. DAL had it, NWA didn't. We however managed to get around it by crediting the NWA pilots their longevity during the merger. That is something that did not happen in the CAL/UAL scenario.

As far as the returnees, their longevity was frozen when they bypassed initially. At least that is what the contract had in it then. I don't think it's changed. The guys in my class that bypassed have the same DOH as me, but longevity wise, I have 8 more years than them.

When the recall was offered 7 years ago it's what was said, I don't want to fly the 88. I think they were hoping to come back to the ER, which they would have because within a year new hires were on the ER.

Now don't get me wrong, I get the bypass system. Look at Buzz's situation. You furloughed me and I had to get another job and I have another commitment and can't drop it on a whim. Having the bypass system is a good thing and I'd have a problem with guys having a problem with Buzz exercising that option.

But I don't agree with the notion that you borrowed someone's job either. It's been 12 years with the company offering jobs periodically over the last half of that period. One person who had the right to the job didn't want it and another did and they were offered it. The company had to move forward and they're not sure a bypasser even wants to ever come back or not and they had 1000 slots to fill.

To call it borrowing is nonsensical.

And the Character of future pilots will begin an inevitable and irreversible decline this morning at 09:30:

Bombardier

Bombardier has been holding to their guns on pricing. Tere is a lot of new technology taking fight here. The first large geared turbofan, new metallurgy, materials and structural technology, new fly by wire .... which is why this has taken a while to get launched.

Then on Tuesday, Boeing will launch the 787-9. Big week in aviation news.

Either way acting smug with an undeserved sense of entitlement is poor form whether your a bypass pilots thumbing your nose at junior pilots or a junior guy thumbing another finger to a senior bypass guy returning to the line.