Let me guess, you are younger than age 35, or were in 07. The younger new hires who have time to enjoy NWA's greater attrition have this attitude, based on their age. The older new hires who only got pushed backwards in career expectations do not. Depends on if your career at this moment is front end loaded, or back end loaded.

Delta is a good employer, but the expectation of reaching pay parity in the second year is now pushed off until able to hold the position we had three years ago. The difference in the career earnings spreadsheet got pushed way back for some of us. It is not an opinion. This is mathematical fact. Those first ten years are important (even more so if a guy is older).

I love Delta, but don't work here because I love the airline. I work here because I get paid, as should all professional pilots. Money wise, post merger, many of us might have been better off staying put.

More information is needed about the demographics of Alaska's list to make a determination what that might mean for us.

P.S. ACL, Super, CLMP and a few others on this board are "golden" and got in at a much younger than average age and at the beginning of a little wave. Yes, they sold their investments with Madoff in early 2007 and bought gold, most of us didn't. As with all financial endeavors "your results may vary."

 

Hear Hear Bar!

 

Well, thanks for the comments. I'll venture to say we'll be perfectly happy to continue to feed the Delta system West Coast passengers under the alliance agreement indefinitely.

BTW, thanks to all the DAL Captains and CSAs. You guys make jumpseating a pleasure.

 

Sad to say people USED to work here because they got paid AND loved it.

And why are we discussing AK intergration? Did I miss some announcement?????????

 

Well said.

Scoop

 

Good point, or course CE Wolman would not recognize Delta now and the industry does not afford the luxury of the sort of paternalistic employment our predecessors enjoyed.

The Board failed to use the "Love Delta" criteria a couple of times when selecting Allen, Mullin and dare I say Anderson (although I like Anderson). At the same time the types that would have been promoted, like Hollis Harris and dare I say Whitehurst have been passed over for quick gains which are not focused on our customer or our product.

 

Fishfreighter, if we merge welcome aboard. I've only heard good things about Alaska and that's good and the one time I dealt with AS it was a positive experience in a trying time and btw, Delta is a great airline if it does happen.

But fwiw, that Alaska-DAL agreement is a big sore spot for our west coast pilots. Many see it as a reason for displacements out of LAX with no pending growth. But at the same time nobody wants to merge again but of course nobody wants Alaska to be acquired by AMR either.

You feel like you're at the optomitrist: "better or worse?" "worse..." "better or worse?" "better but still not good..." "better or worse?" "better but still not good..." "better or worse?" "can I just have lasik?" "no... better or worse?"

The joys of not being in control.

 

Actually, no. I'm 40 and was hired in 08. I've been in and out of this business since I started learning to fly in 1987. I've seen the transformations that this industry has gone through. My pragmatism has come through age and experiences, including leaving this business for a number of years to try it on the "outside."

I have come to accept that my career earnings will never be what I had envisioned them to be when I started down this path as a small boy with his eyes always turned to the skies. Then again, lots of things haven't panned out like I thought they would. Does that suck? Ummm, yeah, but I'm okay with that. That is life.

At the end of the day, I don't need the biggest house or the newest car or the fastest boat. I have a wife and son who love me, a job I enjoy tremendously and while I may never be uber rich, I will lead a fulfilled and comfortably life. So, in a sense, I'm already ahead. I wake up happy every morning, smile when I come to work and will take advantage of the opportunities that come along, keeping in mind that when it's all said and done, there's nothing out there worth getting an ulcer over.

Peace out.

 

I missed the first 45 minutes, but here are some of the highlights of the meeting.

-1.5-1.9 Billion loss in 2009
-250+/- million profit in 2010
-In 2010, Atlantic will be down 4-5%, Domestic up 1%, Latin up 9% and Pacific up 2%. (Only Latin made $ in 2009)
-LGA DOJ approval should happen anyday
-LGA growth will start in May, and remaing growth in June and July
-Applied for DTW-Sao Paulo
-Parking 50 RJ's this year
-If JAL goes through, 16 MD90s will more than likely be a part of the deal
-Flight Ops has proposed a GUM base, but has not been approved. If approved, award will be in the May/June AE.
-Most training for current AE will be done by June. Remaining training will be after summer.
-Currently fat on pilots, but we will barely have enough to get us through July peak in flying. No plans for hiring this year, maybe next year.
-Our plan is to grow by 5-6%, but oil could affect all plans. Business model has oil at $87. If it goes above that our LC competion hurst sooner than we do. We can recoup about 35% of the oil rise through fare increases.
-Not concerned about Air Tran in MKE. It means less flying out of ATL...good for us, and more flying siphoned from ORD/MDW....bad for UAL/AA.
-757-300 will be flying less to HNL and more hub to hub.
-DC-9 and 757-300 will be deployed in small doses to ATL

The last hour turned into a bit of a gripe session, but it was pretty tame.
My overall take was "we have a plan right now, but we are ready to adjust as the economy and oil change."

 

a wise man speaks