That does not work. Some can not hear, or see you.

Somehow they always get to the front of the line and stop, always sit in the first seat by the door and travel with more luggage than Sir Edmund Hillary used to trek across the Antarctic. I really wonder how they manage their overnights when pilots are not there to help them tote their boudoir.

Don't get me wrong, many are very nice people and probably sharp as a tack, but at some point it is time to move on.

Anybody else think that the long anticipated/awaited new commuting policy ought to really be something special after waiting this long. I feel like a dog at the track chasing "the big bid", the "big new commuting policy" and the mysterious flood of MD90s. Would love to see some hard evidence of some of this stuff pretty soon.

In this case the time to move on would have been right about the time the Korean war was winding down.

The airlines have gone downhill since they passed the age 85 thing...

I like the NWA commuting policy. Only used it once. It worked exactly as advertised. The only reason I had to use it was because Pinnacle weight-restricted all of their flights.

Are you sure about that math? In 7 years I'm already down $310,000 compared to my peers at CHQ. I figure it would be a lot higher for a mainline guy if you start counting all the DCI RJs. How many FOs would be Captains and how many reserve guys would be lineholders if just the 76-seaters were at mainline?

Heyas F16,

Agree. There have been a lot of excuses as to why airplanes never materialize. "There are no 100 seaters that meet our needs", "all of the production slots are taken for the next three years", "there are no freighters that meet our needs", "mod lines taking longer than expected", blah blah blah.

You can bet that if we caved on the 100 seat scope, they'd have NO problem finding aircraft that met DCI needs in no time flat. And those "full production lines" would miraculously find enough production to produce the full number of 100 seaters scope would allow virtually overnight.

The "future airplane orders" game is as old as the airlines as a negotiating tactic. The truth is that if the airline wanted the airframes, they'd be here, no matter what...the pilots could do very little to change the equation.

Heck, DAL's own history showed that when management wants an airplane, they'll bend over backwards to give whatever it takes to make it happen.

Shame we can't learn from that...in the meantime, I'll believe in new metal when I'm sitting in it.

Nu

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not so I'll assume not.

Since we have been the only major union on Delta property pretty much any thing we have negotiated to the good in previous contracts has been extended to the non-contract employees (the rest of the company) in some form or another. I'm sure this was done to keep other unions from getting a foothold here. If the company gives them what we negotiate, why do they need a union? A perfect example is profit sharing. We negotiated it and the company gave it to the rest of the employees. If we negotiate a raise, guess what, the rest of the employee groups get a raise. It may not be the same percentage but they get one too. It's also the reason some of the items we try to negotiate with the company during contract time run into more friction than you would think. The company may be okay giving it to us but they don't want to give it to the rest of the employee group. Example, the company hasn't wanted to give us PS on the second flight for commuting purposes...........they don't want to have to extend it to the flight attendants as well.

I'm not saying this is right but it is the world we live in at Delta. Or at least it has been. Post-merger the union issue with other employee groups has yet to be decided. If the union votes being appealed are upheld I fully expect the company to continue as they have in the past.

Denny

Case in point - when Comair went into BK with Delta in 2005, our 34 "guaranteed" aircraft orders were cancelled (if they ever existed in the first place). DCI told us there was no way Delta could purchase new airframes in Ch11.

IIRC, Delta was, at the same time, giving airframes to SkyWest and Freedom at the amazing lease rate of $1 per month.

I never could put my finger on it, but that seemed to be highly irregular.

Well since its already non-sequitur, I'll take the 6.52% higher hourly rate every month versus unknown/possible profit sharing every February. ALPA can have their share as dues.