A guy who had 2300 hours of sick time sees no difference. He doesn't pay a DPMA premium and gets paid for 2300 hours if he goes disabled. For every guy with less than 2160 hours (which is the vast majority), DPMA can be a better deal than what he had. More protection, and the company subsidizes the cost.

I was told you guys were capped at 1200 hours by your contract, and there was only small number over that amount. Also, you only accrued 5 hours per month, so you had a max of 60 hours sick per year. At Delta you can average 100 full pay hours per year with no loss of pay, or 240 hours in any single year. If you go over the 240, then DPMA kicks in for up to 12 months per event.

I'd doubt it. I'm sure the last thing DAL wants right now is another DCI contract. They'd get one of the current players they are stuck with to do it...or at least use ComAir or XJ with CRJ's (even if the Dash was a better fit for the route...the Mesa Dash 8 experiment out of JFK was a disaster, not that Piedmont would perform the same...that failed for many reasons ).

DCI aircraft are not something we seem to be short of at the moment.

Slow,

Up until the crappy bankruptcy contract, we accumulated sick time at a rate of 12 hrs per month. For every month we didn't call in sick, we accumulated 5 hrs in short term sick bank and 7 hrs in the long term sick bank, or vice versa. With the new crappy BK contract, if you had over 1200 hours (I think it was 1200) you were able to keep the hours over 1200, you just couldn't accumulate more.

Because with the pre-bankruptcy k we accumulated sick time at such a rate, there were a lot of guys who had over 2000 hrs in their bank. I don't remember anyone being able to get a payout from their bank, but if that's the case, it's worth a LOT of cash and I'd start looking for a bunch of 747-400 Captains to sart falling down the steps when they come down from the upper deck (Most likely in MNL). :D

New K Now

Thanks dude, and, by the way. You're frikkin funny and should be published. My main means of subsistence is writing. If you are so inclined, shoot me a PM. Times are tough but I've landed a few winners.

South guys,

Can anyone tell me about the SIL program? How often is it offered? What dos it pay? How senior do you have to be to get it? And any other info you can come up with? Also, what the hey does SLI stand for?

New K Now

SIL is Special Incentive Line, SLI is Seniority List Integration :)
They pay 55 hours (I think, or is it 50?) and are offered on an as needed basis. I think that they tend to go pretty senior - I'm sure that some others will chime in with more details.

Oh, and they are offered on a bid at a time basis - and they pay the 55 (or is it 50?) hours to not fly for the month.

Not a south guy, but from my understanding it's basically the same as our Non Availability Program (remember the one that never gets used). You basically get paid 55 hours with no availability requirement for the month. Stay home, make 6000ish for hanging out with your kids. I did read a while back that you do not have the option to pickup a trip, so it truly is just 55 hours and go away for a month. great time for a vacation.

I'd like to take a moment to defend Comair since these posts make it sound like we're awash with Delta's flying and money.

For what it's worth, DCI's "Explosion" was not Comair's "explosion":

March 2001 - 1350 Comair pilots.

September 2009 - 989 Comair pilots.

Comair's pilot group has shrunk by 27% since the strike in 2001.

True, Comair's pilot group grew by 120 pilots a year from 2001 to 2005, but Delta has since spread that flying amongst several new players in an effort to find even cheaper alternatives to Comair/ASA. Delta has sent 45% of Comair's fleet to the desert or "awarded" them to other DCI carriers.

So you have to look past Comair to find the guys flying all those Delta hours.

For example, start by asking yourself which regionals were unknowns in 2001 and today have grown large enough to be buying up other airlines, plus squirrel away enough of Delta's cash to spot US Airways the $300 million they needed to survive Ch11. Or airlines that had enough cash to help Delta to the tune of a half billion in 2005.

In any case, Comair's demise won't bring all those hours back to mainline. Delta has already laundered those hours to the other DCI carriers and apparently the Comair pilots are left holding the bag.

SILs
 

I got a couple of those in 2002. Seems like a good way to handle temporary overstaffing in a category -- the recipient gets a month of "practice retirement" and some junior pilot gets a regular line that he wouldn't otherwise have obtained. When we had a DB pension, some guys wouldn't bid an SIL because it could affect their Final Average Earnings, but that may no longer be a factor.

Also on the SIL, you cannot have vacation, a checkride, or go non-current in the bid month to qualify for the SIL.

The pay is 55 hrs and you are given an "line" with no availability. It effect it gives you the month off.

new, try this one out for size, click on these pictures:

http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/eaStEgS59bw/default.jpg Pan Am 747 promo video

And
http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/fTDsSmILQ0o/default.jpg Pan Am 747 video on 50th anniversary flight to the Orient

Now while the pilots are sadly gone and the planes sadly scrapped, you'll be happy to know that at least the original flight attendants are still available for viewing at the old Pan Am terminal in JFK. Just fwiw.

Has anyone an update on the Chinese MD-90's?

Still working on the Chinese Government end of it.

FWIW, we are getting them from other places besides there as well. Up to 50, but as stated in the DTW base meeting, they will be coming a little slower than planned.

Of course that will change five times between now and Dec.

Is it still looking like Airbus' in SLC to do what the MD90s were doing plus direct to the east coast and MD90s to MSP to reach either coast nonstop?

If that is the case, will the 757s have a role at all in SLC?

No, there are still some Pan Am guys around.:)

Very true, a bit of a stretch on my part as I was thinking more along the lines of the pilots that would've been flying the 747s around at the height of Pan Am's glory. It gave me a moment to tease the "I flew for Pan Am for 20 years" FA crowd that I kept meeting in JFK on the ER.

Just had lunch with a 4th floor'er. Buses in SLC and 88/90's in MSP is going to be one of the first things they attack.

Even though some of the rumors have died down there are still plenty of things in the fire. Definitely need more -88 bodies...they are working on Oct's stuff right now and they won't be able to use the equipment as much as they want to because of it.

Would the 88/90 serve the west coast like the bus does now?

I'm enjoying the west coast mix of flying on the bus now.

Yep, lots of stuff coming down the pike. DAL is a good place to be long term.

Hire! Hire! Hire! :D

I know, I know. We are overstaffed. :(

That is a moving number too....

Yes, & I hope the number we are overstaffed by is & continues to be a DECREASING number!!

The #1 Most Recognized Brand in the world, and Delta decided not to use it. Big mistake.

I wish we could get D E L T A as big as PAN AM is on the wide bodies.

You are killing me.. How long is this pike/pipe that the stuff is coming down? This weekly reminder of good stuff coming reminds me of all the other unfulfilled rumours of the past..."Big announcement on Friday" Just no mention of what year...

There are real not dates per se. They have target dates for many things, but in order for F to happen, A through E need to happen. Many are dependent on one or more things happening.

Fact is long term there will be good news. Some of it will happen in the short term as well. If you know DAL, nothing ever happens quick!

You mean C-O-K-E ? :D

For F to happen the economy has to happen and fuel has to go back down to $30, and age 65 in 2012. Good luck to all.

...For F to happen the economy has to happen and fuel has to go back down to $30, and age 65 in 2012. Good luck to all.

I understand the fuel cost reference, but what does the rest mean?

Looks like Comair's block hours are dropping by 5300+ hours from August to September. OUCH!

EV is about the same. Going from about 1000 departures a day to about 500 this fall.

I don't like to be mean, but the CRJ-200 SUCKS & I'll be happy when they're all gone. It's a horrible product through no fault of the pilots, but I just think they were a HUGE mistake.

[quote=acl65pilot;659083]EV is about the same. Going from about 1000 departures a day to about 500 this fall.[/quote

I seem to have misplaced my trusty airline progam - who is EV? :confused:

Scoop

[quote=Scoop;659119]ASA I believe

correct EV is ASA.

At the time, the CRJ was decent as a turboprop replacement which is what it was intended to be. Routes less than 500 miles which is why it is so underpowered. There was not a perceived need to get the plane above FL280-310. Look at the early CMR routes with it: CVG-DAY/LEX/SDF/IND/CLE. Back in the early and mid 90s with the spat of turboprop accidents the CRJ was a good replacement. But agreed, they are getting really tired now as some of them reach 16 years of age. A corporate aircraft was never meant to fly 2500 hours a year doing hundreds if not thousands of cycles a year.

You bring up some good points.

Yep, the CRJ200 is just a stretched CL604. Almost the exact same flight deck with one or two panels moved. The airframe really starts to show the abuse at about seven years and it just goes down hill from there. Em are MTC pigs.

There is a new CL604, the CL605. I read an article on it and guess what, they said it climbs poorly at high altitudes and although its obviously better than the CRJ-200 (what did you guys call it? The climb restricted jet?) but evidently not by much. You'd think they'd fix that issue by now, especially on the $28M corporate version. I will say, FWIW the CL300 is an awesome plane and while I'm sure the CL605 goes further the truth is you should just be content and pay its bills on your black amex card and use the miles on Delta for those long range trips.

But I wouldn't mind stealing the avionics out of the CRJ200 and it is quiet on the inside until the gear unlocks unlock. At 6'5", its rather miserable to ride on and the windows can be removed, tired of seeing the taxiway anyway.

Hence my question about Piedmont. The CRJs are obviously better out of places like LGA but wouldn't it be better to use the Dash 8s for fuel efficiency on low altitude runs throughout the northeast where lower keeps you out of a lot of delays? Maybe we should've kept the ATRs and moved them. IMHO, if I was an all jet regional I would be looking at adding the Dash 8-400 and possibly those soon to be ATR-600s turboprops real soon. Sure, jets are "better" and passengers prefer them but passengers also prefer to not sweat in the back of the planes and when we hit $100BB we didn't accomodate that anymore for fuel savings so pull out the props... slinging metal is cool.

CONNECTION

touche :cool:


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