Hard to hear about fellow Washingtonians trying to get out west and stuck commuting. I hope someone will explain to me why I'm wrong, but I don't see the 717 and hiring in the next 3 years as having an appreciable effect on helping guys get to SEA. Nobody is going to bid off SEA ERB to be a 717 CA.

Same in LA. In fact I keep running into Capts that move from the East Coast to West coast as they get older/more senior wanting to reinvent themselves out West. Nightmare for West Coast guys commuting to East Coast.

Great analysis.

The data points we have now are definitely some missing dots. The investors/industry analysts would soil themselves if the above numbers were the plan.

You know something's not adding up when a Top-5 spinmeister parses his language this carefully:

The West coast has always been senior. SLC, LAX, and SEA (again) will always be senior. I remember when 727C's in SEA could hold the A position in the east. In my 25 years that has been how it is and it isn't going to change. I know a M88A that bid back to SEA 7ER B because he got tired of the transcon commute.

That was also the case when NWA had a Seattle base, super senior.

BOS and MIA were always senior too, until they were closed...:eek:

The Four Corner bases will always be senior, because that's where people want to live.

Just be glad they haven't closed LAX and SEA....yet. You know the five year plan changes every three weeks. :rolleyes:

Some of it has to do with the flying. A buddy tells me that in SLC, they are deadheading in ALL THREE pilots to fly CDG for March. That's with an ER base in SLC! And the SLC trips are absolute garbage. 2 day 9 hour trips, 30 hour layovers all over the place...Only about 5 Asia trips he says. It's things like that which make pilots bid out of base... you just get fed up. Just bid ATL, stay home on the first and last day of your trip (deviate DH) and get paid another 12 hours for nothing. Work 8 days a month and make 80 hours. LAX has some of the worst trips imaginable if your goal is to have some time off. If ATL would spread some of the love around, build some trips that people actually want to fly and stop farming out the premium trips, there'd be a lot less incentive to commute.

I love how people here throw around that they have been here 13,14,15 years and should be further along.....If you actually were flying here during the 2000's you were lucky to even have a job. Most major pilots on or near the bottom were furloughed or back in the regionals. So to then use that same time span to now WOW people with the indignation of your progress over such a LONG period is ridiculous.

Going to try this one again hope someone has the answer. When do they put reserve look back guarantee on your time card. I should have received some last month and it is still not in there. Should I be calling someone about that?

Over the years the company has come to realize the fewer bodies they have on the pilot list, the cheaper it is to run the airline. Many years ago we beotched about ATL getting all the flying, while all the small bases suffered lost flying. At a crew lounge meeting with then head of Crew Resources David Watson (now head of Inflight, if he's still there) he was asked why ATL got all the good stuff, and the other bases lost it.

His answer: "If I had my way, there would only be ONE base, ATL." In further discussion on the subject he said every little base is inefficient in that they carry too many reserves, and if everyone was based in ATL, they could cut down the overall body count by having fewer reserves, and flying them more.

He went on to say that every reserve should fly at least the Res. Guarantee hours every month, "...because that's what we pay them!"

I raised my hand and asked him, "If you plan on staffing such that you have every reserve pilot flying 70hrs. every month (the res guarantee then), just to fly the normal schedule, what are you going to do when there is a big weather event, and you need reserves to cover the reroutes?"

His answer; "That's what green slips are for."

So, there you go. You saw they closed MEM, put all the MSP sims in ATL, and I'm sure CVG will also be closed, I'm amazed it's still open. You know they have to rent the office space, pay all the Chief Pilots, their secretaries, their parking spots, etc.

The reason they gave us for closing BOS, MIA, ORD, DFW, IAH, MSY, PDX?

Overhead Costs.

Can you say Synergy? :rolleyes:

Bottom line; they always want to minimize body count and they'd like to minimize smaller bases too, it's just cheaper to run the airline that way.

Oh, and by putting all the "good trips" into ATL, they keep the senior Mama's happy, so they don't vote Yes for a union.