Originally Posted by georgetg (Post 951141)

you guys are looking too far ahead:

The 800 pound gorilla is the integration with alitalia currently underway.

2 possibilities:

Alitalia transatlantic flying is considered as a share of the current af-klm/dal jv.
This would be good for dal pilots because any transatlantic flying done by alitalia would be added to the afklm "pot" and would be matched 1-for-1 by additional delta flying.

Alitalia transatlantic flying is added to current af-klm/dal jv.
This would be bad for dal pilots because the 50%-50% ratio would be skewed to reflect additional flying on the part of af-klm-alitalia. Delta pilots would probably maintain status quo in terms of atlantic asms, but this would be ceding "share" in the transatlantic flying.

The outcome of the alitalia integration would probably spell out how delta pilots fare in the upcoming virgina australia/dal jv. A route where i'm afraid we are past the 50%-50% balance in favor of vaustralia....

Cheers
george

Originally Posted by shiznit (Post 951139)

It actually would give us a good bit of leverage if V-Atl. came into skyteam and DL/AFKL wanted them in on the trans-atlantic JV. time will tell.

Originally Posted by georgetg (Post 951151)

As a Delta pilot I wouldn't want VAustralia to expand past the Pacific playground...
They are up to 5 777-300ER, at least 2 of those flying to the US and we have one 777-200LR a day in theater...

It will be hard to push for an even 50%-50% split on Pacific ASMs with the current balance of ASMs...

Cheers
George

Originally Posted by shiznit (Post 951140)

Bravo Zulu to the pilots. (or "...to the pilot." as the media would say:mad:)

Originally Posted by Nosmo King (Post 951153)

You must be excluding all the transpac and Japan interport flying that we do, that is quite a bit of hours and we are just now adding the HND flights to the previous inaugurals of DTW-HKG and DTW-ICN and DTW-PVG.

Now if you are talking about SOUTH Pacific flying, then I see your point.

Originally Posted by RockyBoy (Post 951095)

It is to compete against the AA/BA JV that was approved. It's been in the news for awhile, but not quite like it was worded this morning. I was thinking to see a JV, but when we hire Goldman there is more than a JV going on.

Originally Posted by unit monster (Post 951235)

Question: Is there an instance the gate agent is not supposed to assign first class seats to non-revs? I've seen this happen a few times, but only on domestic 777s.

Originally Posted by iFlyer (Post 951201)

Yes, it's complicated as there are lots of parts to the equation: Richard Branson owns about half, Singapore owns the other 49% which they bought in 1999. They might be interested in selling. Etihad is interested in buying. Lufthansa/United would like to play spoiler. Delta and AF/KLM would like them as a Skyteam partner for UK/LHR flying and access to compete with AA and BA (who is merging with Iberia from Spain), but might try to pull off an equity stake JV to keep it out of others hands.

Virgin had been fighting the BA/AA alliance for years, and now finally lost. It's time for Branson to fold this hand and play the next game, or cash in his chips and go home.

Lots of chess pieces moving here...