Got it figured out! Only thing I had to do was break the trip up into separate days. It posted it all as one event, but just a little cut & paste fixed it. Now I just select the day, select the event, & under all the notes is everything plus touch to call hotel numbers! Sweet!

Thanks again!!

 

Beer,

Try this.

 

Not worried about SkyWest one single bit. They are a ponzi scheme whereby "deal me an ace" SJS victims throat cut their peers for PIC time and their management acts all suave by flaunting guaranteed profits and hoarded cash. But big deal. Their balance sheet is irrelevant because they aren't a real airline. They are a guaranteed profit virtial airline. One of the best in that category? Absolutely. Even "better than Mesa" for whatever that's worth. There was a time when ACA was almost as King Shiz as SkyWest is now.

As for the battle of the balance sheets goes, I'll take DL's balance sheet in a few years with massive revenue and cash flow and significantly paid down debt. To say that SKYW or any other regional is in some magical position to get financing, based primarily or exclusively on DL effectively "co-signing" for them is precisely the point. If any regional flies the C-Series for DL, DL will pay 100% of the cost including the financing and DL will shoulder the debt. The creditors know that if DL were able to suddenly opt out and SKYW were left holding the bag then SKYW would liquidate quickly if they didn't find another sugar daddy because their revenue would dry up fast and furiously.

Now as for subsidized foreign purchaser schemes who use oil or printed stimulus funny money to bankroll a nationalized jobs program, you might be right in that it will be very challenging to compete against that.

Someone mentioned fighting for all ALPA regionals in furute DL contracts. I disagree with that stratedgy because it doesn't do jack. If we wasted one penny of capital on that, SKYW and Republic would vote in ALPA overnight, but so what. The RJ outsourcing among already existing ALPA carriers has shown just as much predatory bargaining because outsourcing by its very nature results in a bidding war. The notion that we can trick management into giving us "bargaining credits" to outsource our flying to cheaper labor, but then turn around and outsmart them by only allowing them to outsource to high priced labor simply will never happen. It would cost the same to keep the flying in house in the first place than to do that.

 

But a Compass staple would have done nothing to plug the gaping hole in scope without also fighting and spending capital on reducing what can be outsourced. You could staple the entire DL regional system tomorrow, but as long as the company were free to sign new carriers or start new ones, then nothing would really be accomplished long term. The number of planes allowed to be outsourced and the seat/weight limits of them have to be reduced, significantly, or it really doesn't matter because if that doesn't happen, nothing has really changed.

Now if stapling a particular pilot group or groups in some way facilitates the reduction in allowable outsourcing limits and totals, then by all means let's do it.

 

Questions I'm sure are right in the contract or somewhere else...

1. When swapping with the "pot"...the two day ahead processing block is based on what time? base/trip checkin time? 0001am?

2. Does PBS bidding run during the night? If so does it put the bid out on it's own or does it need human input to post?

 

Sailing, this is not a hostile post. I'm arguing for an update in the way we think. Lets call it Delta pilots first.
Let us look at this purely from the perspective of what is good for Delta pilots. We don't represent Comair.

Because we failed to merge ASA and Comair Delta flying went from over 91% of block to somewhere around 50 percent from 1999 to 2007. Because we allowed management other options at least 1,200 Delta jobs were lost. Because we failed to keep our flying unified, we allowed Delta management to furlough Delta pilots while Delta was hiring pilots (even street Captains) at their other divisions. Same happened at NWA for much the same reasons. Pilots at Delta lost longevity. Other Delta employees did not.

Fast forward to today. Junior Delta pilots have "job protection" that includes a flow down back to a regional job. I'd bet not one Delta pilots wants to flow down ... they worked for a Delta job and if displaced, they want to continue wearing a Delta uniform.

I believe ALPA benefits Delta pilots. Yet, many Delta pilots desire other representation because of a perceived conflict of interest within ALPA. Our failure to seek unity is a threat to ALPA.

In future negotiations we must now compete, just as the equipment we operate competes on a CASM basis. The greater our pay the greater the incentive to outsource our jobs.

I could give a hoot about Lawson, his stupid letter and his table position on seniority. (I was also in meetings with him and the ASA MEC where Bob Arnold and Danny Utley explained that by paycheck, or equipment type a staple on the bottom would be status quo)

There was a political motivation to highlight the differences with ALPA members at ASA, Comair and other carriers. ALPA's default position should have been unity, but there were reasons why leadership chose a path that split our union. Which brings us to your next point.That's the accepted thinking. It's wrong.

Scope defines who is a Delta pilot and what a Delta pilot operates. Section 1 defines our seniority list.

Management would have received huge windfall had Northwest bought Delta, stripped us of our code and begun distributing our flying to competitive carriers. That did not happen because of Section 1.

We've fallen into a rut where we've let ourselves find justifications for dividing ALPA members and highlighting our conflicts. That reason is outsourcing. It did not start with us. US Air received contractual gains though scope liberalization, then United followed. Contract 2000 was influenced by United's contract, which was substantially built on sharing the expected profitability of outsourcing with management.

If we are done with outsourcing more of our flying, then we don't need to justify divisions among ALPA members. It is old, tired thinking, no more relevant today than McCarthyism.

A strong, unified, ALPA benefits Delta pilots. Give unity a chance.

 

Compass operates the largest and most capable outsourced "regional" jet that has unique limits specific to Compass. ... and yes, we would absolutely have to delete that scope exception which allowed their operation and adjusted the permitted types number accordingly.

IMHO current Compass book would have been fine, with the limit at the current fleet number. Aircraft #37 would require the company to open the contract. Flying the thing at current book would have been worth it for unity.

Bringing Compass on board would have provided a model for recapturing flying that set the precedent for a staple seniority order that benefits ALPA members from both carriers. It would have made our union more relevant. It would have increased Delta pilot jobs.

What could have been

 

Bar;

Great post!

I think unity starts with ALPA though. Maybe it is time for a union re-education program. To be honest, the high road cannot start with the Delta pilots.

I dont think there is any hope for reconciliation with Comair tho. Mgmt has already stonewalled them and started to cut them adrift, couple this with "bad blood" and the march of time. Comair pilots individually can be great folks, but they are on a sinking ship and need to realize it.

JMO as divisive as it sounds.

 

I think Delta's plan is to let Comair wither on the vine. It's been rumored they have shopped them around with no takers so they will just gradually shrink them. Aren't they going from 100 some odd jets to 44? Don't know the numbers so don't flame me.

 

If you had an android phone, it just syncs automatically........