Originally Posted by Whidbey

Also heard it said that many folks in high places felt Alaska was just too expensive. Isn't there a lot to be said for not buying the cow when you get the milk for free?

Other than the standard 717 and MD-88/90 cockpit upgrade talk, have also heard of couple of the instructors discussing JAL 747 rumors. None of them claimed to have any real inside gouge, though. This rumor seems to have died.

Speaking of a potential Alaska merger, How would that effect Delta folks if the SLI went close to how it went with Northwest? Anyone have good info on age distro of the AK pilot group? I am also curious how it might effect folks trying to get out west that were hired at Mother D before the merger.

Wouldn't securing Alaska let us build Seattle more aggressively as our gateway to Asia, resulting in more 767 work out of Seattle?

Everyone on here seems fascinated by the possibility, but would an Alaska merger be good or bad for the Delta pilot group WRT seniority? Are we hoping this happens or hoping it doesn't?

Originally Posted by RockyBoy

I think that an Alaska merger would be great for Delta as a corporation if it could be done using very little cash. It would give us the capacity we need in the West without increasing capacity and diluting pricing power out there where margins are already very thin. The codeshare we now have does most of that, but there are alot of overlapping costs that could be eliminated in a merger.

As far as how a merger would go for the Delta pilots is anyones guess. It would go to arbitration and from the past few mergers it would most likely go category and class ratio's. What most people have said is true that widebody guys would most likely take no hit and the narrowbody guys out west would face the most risk to their QOL. However, with a merger I could easily see lots of SEA growth. SEA could have the potential to become the 3rd or maybe even the 2nd largest hub if we merged with
ALK.

Originally Posted by DeadHead

Question on PCS for you guys, I guess this probably would be better directed at a crew scheduler, but something about contacting crew scheduling on a day off that never really sat right with me.

If you are trying to move off days in a month where the pilot reserve levels are under target reserve levels, is it even possible to have anything moved?
I understand the whole concept of capped reserve days and the need to have the minimum required reserve in contrast to the actual available. Looking at the category for next month though, it looks like we will be short by 3-5 reserve pilots every day, so will that in turn prevent almost any type of moving of X days?

I know it is constantly changing hence the PCS updating 3 times a day, but I was curious if anyone else has seen this in the past.

Originally Posted by Sink r8

It is possible to move X days when Reserves Available are less than Required, because your move might improve the numbers on a given day. If the change you want makes the staffing "less worse", they often will take it. I think it's strictly a computerized process, but sometimes I wonder.

I had fairly good luck in the past if I tried to look at X day moves in multiple incremental steps, and in a way that would "help" them. If you have the patience...

Originally Posted by DeadHead

Worked out well this past month, but we look real short for Dec. I guess that is the norm for that month generally though.
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Originally Posted by forgot to bid

I'd vote her for Queen.

Originally Posted by Whidbey

Regarding hiring... When I went though indoc (recently, excuse the new guy for piping up)

Originally Posted by johnso29

I believe it's possible with the internationals expansion that was just recently announced. If the LGA slot swap goes through, then I think we will definitely have to.