Airline Pilot Central Forums - Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta?

FYI, 11th yr SWA Captain here. I believe I'm pretty representative of an "average" (or more likely slightly below average) SWA pilot in terms of earnings & productivity. I commute to my base. I have small kids at home. I have a great life outside this job and very much enjoy all the days off I can get. IOW, I basically fly my line and try to improve it where I can through trip trading WITHOUT increasing total work days each month. I pick up very little (~6 extra work days total last year). My 2010 W2 showed $224,860 and I flew 761 hours....virtually all of it at straight pay. I mostly do one 3-day trip each week, or the occasional 4-day every now and then. They're usually not commutable. I shoot for an average of 100 TFP monthly throughout the year to hit our annual household income target. I have 4 weeks of vacation each year.

Best of luck with your negotiations.

Smokey,

Thanks for sharing your info with us. As you can see, we have some folks in denial about this. I think posts like yours help. Thanks again.

forgot to bid

07-04-2011 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DLpilot (Post 1017755)

It would be nice to input a time preference without volunteering. Yet another thing to add to the wish list.

Absolutely 100% agree.

The time slots they publish on deltanet should be on icrew and I should be able to say out of the 12 slots be able to list my preferences in numerical order and a computer, not a human, should run a utilization order and post the SCs.

Also I should be allowed to know when I'm going to get SC as there is obviously a system in place but it's not published for us to see.

forgot to bid

07-04-2011 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smokey23 (Post 1017736)

:D

Smokey, you have a caller on line 2, his name is Carl, he want's to say thank you for proving him right. Would you like to hang around and answer more calls?

http://nationallampoon.com/wp-conten...sier-crane.jpg

forgot to bid

07-04-2011 10:36 AM

I'm telling you, if pay and scope matters as much as everyone here says it does to them then there is a lot of good that's going to come from this SWA/AAI merger. I mean, 717 pilots making more than Delta 777 pilots with 100% scope protection to boot.

And I don't care how it came to pass, I just love that it's come to pass.

http://expertlywrapped.files.wordpre...pg?w=500&h=338

And nobody, nobody, should be happier about this than DALPA, right?

Columbia

07-04-2011 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 1017740)

If in 2014 our contract is settled and our rates do not equal SWA where it matters, in aircraft of similar mission and size, then we have to come to terms with the following:

2. Delta management is not as good as SWA,
.

What's your definition of "as good as" - annual W-2s? :)

forgot to bid

07-04-2011 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Columbia (Post 1017776)

What's your definition of "as good as" - annual W-2s? :)

If SWA pays their pilots a high wage and is looking at further increases in 2012, even if small. If DAL or DALPA claims those wages that SWA can afford are unaffordable then one could ask how come DAL can't afford equal pay for equal work? SWA has figured out how to pay those rates thus far and is not talking cuts.

Ferd149

07-04-2011 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowplay (Post 1017720)

We have had both types in the past. When I started we had a 5 hour DPA. In 1996 we went to a 4-6 hour Variable Minimum (VM) per duty period where the average for the trip still was 5 hours per duty period. We changed back to DPA in C2K because the resulting rotation construction (for the DAL network at that time) was deemed inferior.

I have no idea what the impact would be under our current network and rapidly adapting marketing schedules.

Thanks Slow,

I was asking about a hard minimum day like FedEx has vs a DPA or Variable minimum. I don't know what the impact would be either, I just suspect that it would force better packed rotations.

Ferd

slowplay

07-04-2011 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ferd149 (Post 1017780)

I'm sure the scheduling committee and negotiators will be looking at those options if they're priorities in the contract survey. That said, I suspect that "better rotations" is in the eye of the beholder. Remember the complaints that hit this board when Bid Period 5 hit for fNWA Intl categories? The "better" trip rig changed a bunch of "favored" rotations for the worse in the opinion of those actually flying them. We had the same result with our more restrictive VM. With the number of "day of week" and seasonal cancellations we have in our network, a hard day might have some unforseen results. I'm all for looking at improvements, though. I really hate 10+30 3 day trips.

Pineapple Guy

07-04-2011 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowplay (Post 1017808)

I really hate 10+30 3 day trips.

Then maybe you should bid off this category so you don't have to fly those anymore. :D

threeighteen

07-04-2011 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ferd149 (Post 1017711)

Guess you're right........:(

But, I guess it "wasn't exactly a soup question".
(for 5 gillion bonus points, name the movie):D

Ferd

Finding Forrester, one of my favorites.