And that was the best day. We were done! :D

Exactly right. The more jobs they directly (flows) or indirectly (interviews) offer, the more Pinnacle attrition is guaranteed to increase, thus not solving the problem of Pinnacle attrition in the first place. In addition to generating guaranteed attrition…ironically among those there least likely to attrit in the first place (senior Captains who may have already not been successful at the first SSP), they will also do little to nothing to stop the exodus at the bottom half. Even if you have a guaranteed interview or even a flow, if you know it'll take you years and UAL/AA/FEX/UPS/SWA/JB or some others call you today, you're likely going.

The only thing they can do to stop the attrition is the one thing they won't do under any circumstance: significantly improve the pay and working conditions there. They may throw token retention bonuses around here or there or maybe give a small mid contract raise and declare victory, but they absolutely won't do what needs to be done by giving significant raises and QOL improvements. So instead they will chase their tails with more tertiary SSP schemes and kick the can down the road for hopefully one more bonus cycle.

... or bring all those airplanes and that flying in house.....

Well yeah there's that. But it goes against any MBA's prime directive. If they do end up going there it'll probably be a while. I think they'll tinker around with SSP/flow stuff for a year or three longer.

AB,

I agree with you that that some level of outsourcing is obviously required for the short term but long term - who knows? This industry got by without outsourcing for decades. DAL management then went bonkers with RJ outsourcing. Now the pendulum appears to be swinging back in the other direction.

My original point was that by outsourcing you lose control. DAL outsources based on lowest cost so we have to live with the inevitable bad press. If your point is that we need to be more selective in who we choose to outsource I agree 100%, but the discriminator we appear to have been using so far is cost.

OBTW - I don't really believe in a "foreseeable future." :)

Scoop

Buy the C-series, bring the flying back to mainline, and be done with it..

Unfortunately, it will be some time in the "foreseeable future" before we can unravel outsourcing..

Please, only Marines can fly the F-16.

The unofficial number I overheard was 1.75-2%.. Great deal, huh! Ygbsm!!!

Ten

Oh snap! Lol! The competition is going to make them cheap. Prime buyout target.

Ten

In the end, are we making them an easier merger target for our competition? (e.g. American)

We're adding flights to feed our (Seattle) international destinations, which in-turn reduces both of our RASM numbers, making Alaska "cheaper" for someone else to swoop -in & merge/assume their network. Like they say, "we've just done someone's bidding for them!" :eek: