.................... Pac-10

Tomcat,

I think you are right. Well at least about this (DAL) being the place to be after the dust settles. DTW is not a bad commute. There are never any ATC delays, it has 6 long runways, the terminal is nice, and they know how to handle a snowstorm.

But, if the 1/4 of DALN pilots in So CAL and competition with the entire state of Florida worrry you to the point you want to move here, I understand that too. Winters can be depressing though, because you can go weeks without seeing the sun. In the summer it is much more bearable. There are a lot of lakes (Michiganders will be quick to tell you that they have more than the 10,000 that Minnesota boasts about) and a lot of our DTW pilots have boats to retreat to on days off.

I honestly hope you don't have to move here though, and there are minimal displacements. I spent my first 12 years here listening to the legitimate complaints of the red/green show and have no interest in going through that again with the North/South show. So, for both "sides," the less pain the better, because then there is less to complain about.

I look forward to flying with you guys and am so thankful that I don't work for US Airways. It's a mess over there. :confused:

New K Now

Forgot,

It seems to me like there should be a practice bid or something to see how the chips would fall. Also, you are right, it would be nice if they could give us some information about what plane is going where.

The problem is that at this point, seniority means nothing as far as plans. I mean I'm senior enough on the DC-9, but if they move all of them out of DTW, it dosen't matter. I will have to figure a new commute, or a new airplane, or both. Even both of our #1's face uncertianty. Well, maybe not the SDAL #1 because there will always be 777's in ATL. But, NDAL #1, a -400 CA in DTW might have to make a decision if they move all the -400's out of DTW.

So, basicially I would like to add my voice in your frustration. But, I know there are more, because in all honestly, 99% of our pilots cannot say for sure where they will be flying next year this time. I am just thankful that ACL is on here to feed us some crumbs of info once in a while.

We shall see what happens. I'll just have to bite my nails and sit on my hands (in that order) in the meantime. :)

New K Now

Wow ts, you've got the SEC up there kind of high, don't you? :rolleyes:

More crumbs!!

I just talked to a few people that seem to know more than you or I do.

From what they are saying and this comes from good sources is this:

The Jan surplus bid did enough that we will be perfectly staffed for this summer. They hare happy with the displacements that took place and are not looking to do more in the June/July AE. It will be just for the 777. (As of today)
As for over staffing this is how it plays out for the WE, not North and South.
We are fat by about 150 or so for the summer, 800 overstaffed for the winter and about 150 short for next summer. Because of the temporary nature of the over staffing this winter, they will offer SIL's to reduce the static costs of the 800 pilots, but they are not looking at ANY furloughs.

(Remember you haters that these are not my words but people that make the decisions. It too can change and that is fact as of today, not tomorrow)

One thing I found interesting is that they thought the APA process would take care of the 742 stuff prior to SOC. Not sure if this will be true, but that is what they are thinking. ( If I were a betting man, I would bet this might change. The only way I see this holding true is if we cannot get all of the 757 guys in to the sims by Dec 2009, and SOC is delayed to April 2010.)

Yeah, it was a dark time in my life. I was ATL based...

Not to contradict but a friend is up in MSP for CQ and the ugly F word reared its head...... Basically he was told that we were staffed for summer but come fall/winter we were fat and they are considering furloughs. I hope this turns out to be false but it came from pretty high within the food chain.

I just talked to somebody in 'the know' at least in the know for today and they said that No Furloughs. They are working up a perp plan to target 300 guys. A pretty aggressive plan but we'll see. I also heard that they are considering, well never mind, anyway things are changing daily so who knows.

I can see that, if next summers numbers change, but as of now the Flight Plan for 2010 has not changed. Now if they do a year over year pull down from this summer, I agree that you are correct. I bet we see about 500 furloughs then, but not until you see an announcement like this. Plus, it makes no sense to furlough for four or even six months. From what I understand the magic number is North of 24 months.

On the DAL side we staff for summer flying, that is they way that it has always been, then we SIL (55 hrs of pay for no flying) in the shoulder, or fat months.

This info came from about as high up as you can get here on that DAL side. The first post that is.


Like I said, it could change but not as of this AM.

Come on we all love rumors. ;)