It also shaped the attitude of the mid 80s hire pre-merger reds. Disclosure: I was hired post merger.

First they got merged with REP using DOH and being on the losing end of that part, but they had a 20 year fence and non-expiring recall rights. REP pilots came into the red book pension without bringing any money because they were smart enough to terminate their old pension, buy an annuity (or annuities for some) and then negotiate their stake in the merged pension. REP pilots were also paid a lower hourly rate for a period after the merger and were denied bids to narrow body aircraft that new hires were allowed to bid.

Then the fences ended and the slow flush began by virtue of base closures, retiring airframes and "replacement aircraft", some of the mid 80 hires were forever frozen out of widebody captain due to DOH SLI but some still had non-expiring recall rights if they had been on it previously.

Then Chapter 11, OMG management is using our pension as a weapon against us to get concessions and the damn post merger guys control the MEC and screwed us again with DC targeting.

Then the DAL merger, they didnt get DOH again on the losing side, got a 5 year fence on a retiring aircraft, an aircraft that won't be delivered until 2020 and the 747-400 but didn't get it on the A330 and then had their recall rights period reduced from forever to 6 months and OMG I lost 3 years of seniority again.

And here we are with lawsuits against ALPA and a vocal DPA movement.

You can pretty much swap negatives and positives in that synopsis if you are a green book guy.

I am sure someone can find parallels in pre merger DAL and Western.

FTB,

My "gut" feeling is the initial A-320 bid awards will be fairly junior, and that's typical. The reason is there are no bid packages to evaluate what the trips are, and what one's seniority could hold in terms of trips, days off, etc. So even though there will be a bunch considering the category, many will hold off until they have a better picture of what their individual quality of life would be like.

As far as five day trips...

I'm a south guy flying the A-320 in SLC. I live in base but I prefer the five day trips because it allows me to create a decent block of days-off every month. When the category first started in SLC there was a bunch of *itching (by DAL-S pilots) about how there were so many five day trips and so on... The result is many more three day trips, and more four day trips as well (but fewer five day trips).

For many folks the five-days are desirable.

Delta Air Lines Inc. will have to repay $175 million in loans tied to a long-ago bailout of Northwest Airlines because it is closing training centers for pilots and flight attendants in Minnesota, where Northwest was based.

What a great summery. I think I'm going to print that out as my "talking points/lesson plan":D

I wonder what the size differential is between the remainder of the red/greens and the pmWestern guys is.

History always effects the present. Guys who chose to think past mergers don't matter don't understand what is happening to them.

Ferd

What is the earliest conversion date of this AE? I'm wondering for freeze purposes..thanks

spot on. if i commuted to dtw i want 5 days. live in base? no 5 days.

As to what happens here, it could go in so many directions. I couldn't begin to list what could happen given if commuters find out its a 5 day trip plane then they'll flock to it. There are anti-Airbus folks. DTW folks who may follow it here because they like the plane and the commute may be identical in effort. Guys bidding around the 88 who want or hope for more seniority on a plane with technology. Guys hoping they can go from the 88 to 320 and get better trips without going lower % wise on the other equipment. How many guys don't want to bid into the unknown?

Or what if you can hold it now, but not later, and what if later it turns out to be an awesome category?!? :eek:

With only 50 spots in a base who could tell?? It may go senior or it may not. It'll be fun to watch.

It looks like prospective FAs are doing videos now:

YouTube - ‪eHarmony Video Bio‬‏

Could be as early as July 1st, but probably early Aug once they get it all figured out.

Is that a loan that DAL had to pay back anyway, or is this associated with some type of steep penalty or fine??

Basically is this new debt or lingering debt. If it is lingering then I think it's a moot point.