Then absent a bald-faced lie to the company's face, I don't know how you refused a legal IA.

Don't get me wrong. I hate the idea of an IA, and I have never been IA'd. I also understand if the company meets you at the gate to IA you for the next day that you might want to burn the place down. I do remember a couple of times when the company called me at home to try and IA me, but because I am proactive and have my "ringmaster" number in DBMS, I knew why they were calling and didn't pick up. (I suppose that would be a case of I did not want it "deep down").

But if you are met at the gate, and the agent gives you a legal next-day IA, you pretty much have to take it. I realize that you may have some absolutely legit reasons to decline it, and you might win and the company looks elsewhere, but there are other instances when you don't, and you have to take it, and it has nothing to do with "deep down inside really wanting it."

In any case, jetway IAs are fairly rare, but not unheard of during certain periods of crew staffing buffoonery.

I know I am going to regret this...

However...

For the sake of the discussion. If you are blocked at... let's say 8:40. And it's VMC all the way across the country. Flight planned at a high Mach number. No delays on taxi out. None on taxi in. The ground crew is waiting for you and blocks you right in. Yet you are 21 minutes late.

Can you justify the reason for being that late?

And just something else to add on here... for those of you that are hard over about no overtime flying with guys on furlough, when we negotiate the next section 6, I suggest that we put in a clause that says GSs and IAs with guys on furlough pay straight rates.

Fire away.

This cracks me up on the 737. It does M0.795. Basically ~250 KIAS from shortly after rotation to shortly before touch down. Any faster, it chirps at you and sends reports to Virginia Ave. Any slower and it shakes the yoke and sends reports to Virginia Ave. + the Standards Pro's.

Long story short, the real difference between "TCI SLOW" and "TCI FAST" is about 5 knots, which is less than the difference when an enroute controller looks and says "Southwest goes first" ... "Delta, turn 20 degrees right."

The only meaningful speed up is going down to 27,000 to 31,000 feet and getting into the fat part of the MACH / TAS curve. Delta's not going to burn the gas to do that and if they did Captains would ask for higher and be proud of the fact they're "making profit sharing."

Of course the -900 might force the operation down into the "speed zone."

Just a week ago, I was rerouted right at push back on last leg. Last leg of 2 day, SLC based they rerouted me to MEM INTO MY VACATION DAY. Then the next day, sent me to LAS before SLC.

Although at the time I was extremely ****ed, my 10 hour 2 day turned into 30.

I have the same feeling, we have a contract that no one follows. I quoted all the sections about why if was illegal, no one cared.

ALPA rep says it happens nearly everyday.

Since the Company felt like they got screwed so hard on our current furlough protection, why not just codify in our contract "no overtime flying if a pilot is on furlough, or reassigned to a Connection carrier via some flow to no-where provision."

When the Company says, "but we can't run our airline without over time" reply "yeah, and that guy can't provide for his family without a job."

Might sound tough, but when this Company outsources half (going towards a third) of our flying ... there are jobs. Plenty of jobs. They just aren't being performed by Delta's pilots. We can fix that.

... and I think that is the reason for the sick harassment. "Sick" is about the only relief someone has when they need it. So, that is where the pressure is being applied.

Previous airline ... had a good friend fired because he refused to be extended while his mother laid dying. He went to be with her the last night of her life rather than fly. They fired him.

However you want to do it. All I am saying is that when this comes up there is always a backlash against senior guys flying greenslips, yet nobody ever says anything about the cellar dweller that answers his phone and flies IAs to the tune of a hundred fifty hours pay... And to set the record straight, I am a bottom feeder in my category and prolly will be for a long time.....

Two questions.

Company just announced pre-tax profit of 2.6B for 2013. Roughly what does that equate to in profit sharing?

Also, how do you find out what hotel for CQ?

I've been saying all along that the company's long term goal for the pilot group is to paint us into the trick bag using incremental steps.

Each negotiation, we give away something key. Like sick leave. Each loss is not enough in itself to cause a 'no' vote, but over time, we'll be at their beck and call and our jobs will be on the line if we ever say 'no'. Trust me, the CP's of the future won't be Santa Claus. You won't want to see the inside of that office, ever. I've been there as have many others at previous airlines. RA and co. are long term thinkers. The last TA was not an emergency, but they convinced us it was. We didn't think things through. Our only hope is that our union takes the long view also and advocates for us instead of for the company when they 'need something'. 'Constructive Engagement' will be a laugh for the company when they can just say "no".