Things that make FTB laugh:



Things that make 80ktsclamp happy.

Miley Cirus and birthday cakes.

 

What do you think SWAPA is going to be able to do with AMR in CH11? What great raises did they agree to last time? How about all of that growth? How protected are they if Kelly decided to take AMR's place in OneWorld? Would SWAPA even have to be consulted given their current section one language? Is that a little short sighed given the fact that they are effectively maxed out in the domestic markets?

Lets see how SWAPA can deal with these issues. Labor peace and happiness is important to Kelly but to what extent? These questions above are ones that will test the very fiber of that relationship.

Their playing field and underdog status that allowed them to breeze though the last decade is over. They are way larger and have many more operational issues that the used to. They have a hard time competing with DAL.

As to your low ball comment about managing expectations, not at all. I think setting them as our bar is setting ours too low. How we get there is up for debate but they are well below where I know we should be compensated.

 

This is Delta. We are all Delta pilots now. Delta pilots took a cumulative total 42% pay cut (prior to and then during bankruptcy). With the pay increases we have gotten to date, it would take approximately a 67% increase to restore the buying power we had in 2004 prior to taking the cuts. NWA rates have nothing to do with any of that.

 

Well, you're entitled to your set of expectations. All I can say is that yours are obviously a lot lower than mine.

 

If AMR survives and emerges as a ULCC guess what? they may just have to do that! AMR will be the next SWA and the cycle will repeat itself. That is why on many levels the CEO's are very intent on dealing with the possibilities of AMR now before they can sell their bag of goods. Fragmenting AMR saves the CEOs from repeating the last decade. They do not want to have to reinvent the wheel that seems to be providing them success today.

 

He is referring to our CH11 contract and theirs to our current compensation. If you figure in the stock it is about that. The stock alone equates to about a 6-10 dollar per hour bump in rates over the first few years of our agreement. Go read Art Aaron's piece of that.

Call it 27% restoration if you want, but the total compensation improvement of both premerger groups get very close to Alfa's assertions.

 

When did I ever say those were my expectations? I simply said Delta pilots are one of the better paid pilot groups in the industry. Compare us to others, & that's a fact. I never said our current pay rates were my expectations.

 

So on your survey you put something well above 50% for a pay increase? And your expectations are consistent with what you put on the survey? Is that what you're saying, ACL?

This is really getting confusing. It seems like there could be two ACL's posting here. One "ACL" seems to have really low expectations and the other "ACL" seems to have really high expectations (even higher than mine ). Did someone hack your account, ACL? Or maybe you're just practicing for a career as a DC politician?

 

And you're still missing (or ignoring) my point. This is Delta, not NWA. The Delta pilots are (hopefully) looking for restoration of our pre-BK (pre-pay cut) standard of living. It has nothing to do with NWA, Pan Am, Western, or any other airline that Delta has combined with in the past.

Are you saying you don't think the NWA pilots should have been compensated the same as us when they became Delta pilots?

 

Well I would certainly hope not. But the real question is exactly how much higher are your expectations? If you're going to compare us to all the other carriers with bankruptcy contracts and minimize the comparison with SWA (our biggest competitor in our biggest hub), then that sounds like expectations of a pretty small pay increase. At least you're being consistent with all the official DALPA contract communications we've been getting.