Whereisalpa

Does anyone one have insight on DAL paying down as much debt as possible to keep money out of PS checks? The exert below is from DPA's website. I want to hear what your thoughts are on this. Is it B$ or should we be concerned!

DPA Comment: This statement by Ed Bastian looks very much like DAL is preparing to circumvent the PWA by unilaterally changing what it reports as "normal expenses" versus extraordinary, one-time or non-recurring events. Consider the PTIX definition language from Section 3 of the PWA:

“Pre-tax income” (PTIX) means, for any calendar year, the Company’s consolidated pre-tax income calculated in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States and as reported in the Company’s public securities filings but excluding: a) all asset write downs related to long term assets, b) gains or losses with respect to employee equity securities, c) gains or losses with respect to extraordinary, one-time or non-recurring events (including without limitation one-time transition or integration costs incurred in connection with the merger of the Company and Northwest Airlines Corporation during the two year period following the merger), and d) expense accrued with respect to the profit sharing plan.

DPA Comment: ALPA's lack of response to this announcement indicates that they are either ignorant of the play in progress or they are intending to let the company steal from its employees. Yes, we can easily view it as stealing. When DAL takes a $175 Million non-recurring charge and suddenly declares it as a "normal" expense, they can now potentially reduce PTIX by the same amount thereby stealing the 20% Profit Sharing payout that would be accrued. That is $35,000,000.00 of Profit Sharing payout the company apparently intends to pocket. That's a lot of Christmas presents DAL will be stealing from under the trees of its 80,000 employees in 2015 and in future years. Apparently, DAL wants its employees to give the company a 20% discount on its bad hedging and currency bets. Making your employees pay for your gambling failures is a recipe for unrest.

nohat

I think two things are happening.

Delta is making things hard for us and we will have to grieve this if they do try to pay down debt and keep it out of our profit sharing check.

the second thing this does, it gets pilots thinking maybe this profit sharing thing is not so good after all, so lets get something for it or basically pay for our raises like in the pos TA2015

don't fall for it!!!

David Puddy

The old accounting saying is, "profit is an opinion." There are so many ways to manipulate profit through deductuions or pre-payments. I am sure DALPA's accountants have considered that.

BobZ

Sure thing.

And I'm sure alpas retirement experts were on the job regarding the Ponzi pension plan the delta pilots once were assured was secure.

If you look up oxymoron in Webster is says...." see, 'alpa experts'...."

iahflyr

I laughed when I read this. A couple years ago, some pilots were blaming airlines for taking on too much debt and not paying it down when they could have...

If Delta doesn't pay down their debt now when times are good, then expect the next recession to hurt that much more.

DALMD88FO

Where is this statement from EB?

BobZ

Go ahead and laugh...... the question is not one of 'buying down' debt.

The question is the accounting allocation of that debt payment.... and if or not it is being done in a way to take money out of our pockets.

I mean.... its not like management doesn't have a track record in this behavior. I'm sure they ALWAYS act in your best interest.

Pay attention. That way you won't get ripped off by management....AGAIN.

Whereisalpa

Sleepy Ed's comments are quoted on DPA's site as...

Ed Bastian: "CASM, ex-fuel, up two percent, non-operating expenses of 200 Million dollars, that's higher than what we've guided in the past. The reason for that is we are gonna be writing off in the 4th quarter ...ah... the last of our Venezuelan currency, ....uhhh... that's a 75 Million dollar writeoff. Ahh... We are taking that through our....our....our normal operating expenses. I think all other airlines are taking that as a special item. We are not gonna do that. We're gonna...we've....we've....we've decided.....we've been...we've been getting there over the last ...uh... the last couple of years that these are costs of the business that we all need to manage. Ahh... So you're not gonna see very special.... many special items. You know, what you are going to see in our PNL is our, all of our costs of the business, not just the costs that we wanna tell you about. We're not like some airlines that are in the sixth year of their merger that still exclude merger related integration costs. Ahh...We think it's something, by the way, you guys all should be paying attention to and holding the industry accountable to in terms of making sure that the cost of business are...are fully excluded...uhh...fully included so the Venezuelan currency writeoff, the 60 Million dollar early hedge settlements, we had a 40 Million dollar severence charge as we went through some merit reductions in the fourth quarter. All of that's in our operating cost and all of that's in our guidance and we're not excluding any of that. We're...we're...The only thing we are excluding as a special item, ahh... these days, and expect in the future, is just the normal mark-to-market on fuel, but other than that, you're gonna see all of our costs in the business. By the way, I think that's about 175 Million dollars that we're gonna have in the fourth quarter expenses that most other carriers would exclude, but we include them as costs 'cause we think they are appropriately .. uhh...reflected there."

Whereisalpa

After all we have lost, if this is happening just to make our slice of the PS pie smaller..... I/we have paid enough. Where is the backpack pile???

BobZ

Translation......' every other airline (and probably corporation) wouldn't do this the way we are going to do it....... but because I lose sleep at night worrying if I have taken enough from delta pilots......I am going to do it this way to take ANOTHER $35M from them, and finally get a good night sleep in my new Florida condo'......

Still think its funny?

I guarantee the speaker quoted is laughing hysterically inside at this group.

What is important to recognize, is the bs flag on this was NOT raised by OUR $50m/year CBA