I am curious why you think the company should offer leaves for our pilots to go and fly for a competitor, just long enough so that they can come back with some seniority?

There are a few guys here that are looking at ten years to a left seat saying the same thing.

In all fairness training is old school and you are clearly the hired help, but at least the have a driver pick you up for work. :D

I think they should offer a great early out package and hire from the bottom. Since it appears they do not want to do that and we are projected to be over staffed next year the question of leaves was proposed and I would be curious if they would offer longer term leaves. A few months ago the max leaves they would entertain all ended NLT than March 2013. My curiosity is more about if there is a departure from their previous position.

Be very wary of what you are told about expat taxes. I call shenanigans on what most people claim as their expat tax burden.

Roughly 87,000 is income tax exempt IF you are out of the country for 335 (ish) days of the year.

The above reads income tax, not social security. You may get a break on this if you can prove to the IRS that your foreign employer pays into an approved program. Otherwise, you are liable for the almost 13% worth of taxes that you + your U.S. employer would normally pay.

Off shore accounts come up next. You must report anything over $10,000 to Uncle Sam. Fail to report this, and then get audited, good luck.

As far as medical, most foreign contractors offer good FOREIGN medical. These plans usually have an exemption for services rendered in the United States.

Read the small print on these contracts and don't believe everything you are told.

Agreed. That is why who the employer is, is very important.

Our current scope for small jets is a quantity and size limitation at 76 seats and corresponding aircraft weight. It is my view that Delta pilots already own all flying above this sized aircraft (sub 100 seat), but putting the genie back in the bottle at 76 seats will be very difficult absent further change in the regional space. PCL's potential restructuring and the financial problems at RAH might provide some of that change in the near term. It also might make it worse if they go into a downhill race.

Management has contracts that run from 2017-2022 for small jet providers. There is no way of which I'm aware for us to bind management to break a contract with a third party. Even if we were able to bind our management, management would have to find ways to incent the small jet providers into releasing their contractual claim. Since Delta is a majoirty of PCL's business, and a substantial portion of SKYW and TSH that would be a difficult economic proposition. Some of the things you mentioned (ALPA only new carriers and minimum contract standards) have been discussed, but as you point out only apply to new agreements.

It's my view that we will have to capitalize on any available opportunity to try and bring flying back in house, such as an agreement not to renew contracts as they expire. But that comes with some risk. If you don't own the flying or have a production balance in a JV/capacity purchase segment (not true for pro-rates), then you run the risk of being whipsawed. As I mentioned CMR and SKYW Inc are finding that out up close and personal. For example, if PCL were to reject the 16 CRJ-900 that they fly under a CPA for Delta, I would only want that flying brought to mainline if we had a production balance of 16/153 of the block hours or some other forms of protection. Because we're paid more due to longevity, we'd be the high cost providers and we'd be setting up the junior end of our list for the labor arbitrage that's being played out.

This is just my opinion, and I'm sure there are quite a few here that will tell me how and where I'm wrong...;) Thanks for the civil discussion!

btw, back in the day there were some microbrews in BZN that were outstanding. Don't know if they're still available, but it used to be a great layover.

There are a lot more than "a few guys" that would see a 10 year upgrade as an improvement.

Nu

I disagree, KC.

Every one of those 70 seat flights should have two double-breasted jackets with gold buttons on board.

If we had it, think about how great the LGA slot swap would have been for us.

We could worry about the pay later.

His pay and compensation was negotiated by mainline pilots.

Ah, the "good" old days, I used to do this trip (sorry rotation:rolleyes:) on the 319/320 8-10 years ago. You just have to replace SLC with MSP or DTW. Of course, I did it in the right seat of the bus pretty much being paid what I make in the left seat of the DC-9 now. :mad:

Nice trip, wish you could do it here though...