How come the "negotiators notepads" never state what the company gains? They make it sound like we got everything we could possibly want. NNs have waaayyy too much spin; the content is so selective it's insulting.

What does the company gain from this LOA?

 

Nice!

Hey, some of the Jan Capt. awards are out, there are X's in all the Capt. boxes but I checked several and it seems that only the smaller categories are out. 737A and MD88A in CVG are out, and the 777's and 747's, 765's are posted (A's only so far) but most of the larger categories (ATL 767/MD88/737/717) not done yet.

Good luck men, we're all moaking on you!

 

I just read the negotiatior's notepad. I'm confused over what we just negotiated. Why are we protecting all of our international flying with this joint venture? Shouldn't it just be about Virgin Atlantic and us? To me, it seems like we are on the short end in this deal so they threw in some overall international protections to make the deal seem better than it is. What am I missing?

 

Are parents allowed to nonrev to South America? I can't find anything that says they can't, but in another thread somebody thought that only my wife and kids were allowed international nonrev privileges.

 

We have to understand that both Delta and the Delta MEC are first movers on this piece. Yes, other airline have owned 49% of Virgin, but no management team on earth has Delta's expertise at marketing, operations and the strategic network capability to make it all come together profitably. As for contract language, although this builds on previous structures, it is a first in a World where change typically comes slowly.

We are among the highest paid pilots on the planet. If we want to make more money, secure career progression and protect our junior pilots we must defend against Delta growing it's worldwide flying using Virgin (or a future partner) instead of us.

What we, as the pilots of Delta Air Lines, achieved:

• First Global Production Balance - meaning our growth is included in Delta's plans, even plans it has not thought of yet.
• Increased the protections over our Wide body International flying TEN fold (57,000 increased to 576,750 and that will increase as VS re-fleets on a roughly 3 to 1 ratio)

100K Carl has posted a lot on the difference between the BH floor in the TA and our current Widebody block hour flying. We can talk about this now that there is official data out there to compare. We fly 662,403 BH based on the snapshot used. Be aware that these numbers change constantly and there are differences between scheduled and actual time.

We need to make the important distinction that compliance is not measured in block hours, but in Available Seat Kilometers. Because Virgin operates out of tightly slot restricted London Heathrow it is going to tend towards larger units of capacity that create out sized ASK metrics, like the A380. (I am not a big believer in the A380, in fact I think it's days are numbered). My guess is that the Virgin fleet mix will change away from the 747's and A340's and that something will backfill in addition to the 15 787's VS has on order. I have no idea where that might be going, but the A350 and 777-X would be compelling.

Regardless, after some allowance for VS growth, this TA ensures that any substantial growth at VS Delta must grow.

Could the agreement have been better? Yes. What made ratification a unanimous vote was that our contract was substantially improved. Going forward we now have a framework to build on that ensures we will not be a wide body version of Comair, just to have our flying diluted as we maintain a better contract than our peers.

As a junior pilot who's career will likely be defined by this work ... a hearty and sincere "thank you" for your efforts gentlemen.

 

Everyone on your benefits can go anywhere Delta flies they fly at a lower priority. Lima can be tough to get out even as S2

 

Yes, your parents can nonrev. No restrictions on S. America. Since you're married they do have to pay a $75 fee for each transoceanic flight day (plus applicable taxes that we all have to pay.) I can't remember if S. America counts as Transoceanic or not.

There is a ton of info on Travelnet under Pass Policy (upper right of the page) where you can find all the details. It takes a little clicking around, but most of the answers you would need are in there somewhere.

 

Two moaks not given, just want to know when my bid is out.

 

Why did the company agree to this? What is in it for Delta?

 

Obviously, only my opinion.

Why does Delta buy fuel hedges? After all, fuel is eventually bought at market and hedges are really just insurance against market fluctuations. Yes, you can use them to bet on the market, but eventually statistics tell us pretty reliably that the net is near zero and Delta still had to pay the premium. The answer is certainty. To plan profitable flying, Delta has to have a certain cost in mind for fuel.

This agreement provides management certainty over another big expense, labor. With that expense understood, they can decide what airplanes make sense, where does Capital get the greatest return? Getting this out of the way allows them to move forward, just as they did with the 717's in C2012.

It isn't that they can't run the airline without certainty, but they can not plan as well without certainty. Having agreement lowers risk.

I'd also like to point out the converse of this cooperation. Delta could just plan on the pilots fighting them on everything. If that were the case Delta would avoid using us as much as they could and try to outsource more; while becoming stagnant & losing a first mover advantage in the marketplace.

Especially on the international side, margins are tight and our competitors (like the ME carriers) don't have labor problems. We can move together and remain competitive, or fight each other and lose the World (quite literally).

Just my opinion, that is how I think management sees it.