It was all timing. Delta didn't acquire Pinnacle until after the vote. Had the vote not passed or if the judge didn't impose the contract, Delta would not have acquired Pinnacle. The bankruptcy judge already said he would impose the labor contract with a few minor changes. Either way, we would've got rapped in the deal. The big thing for Delta was the money carrot. It locked Pinnacle in into a longer contract before it became amendable. With a bankruptcy imposed contract it would've become amendable in a year. Delta also hinted that if it was voted down it was game over. They already had other carriers lined up to transfer planes to.

Delta said they wouldn't buy Pinnacle. A judge would not inpose a 10 year contract. Also, there is no way to show that that contract repaired a broken business model.

How so? Is that what Republic is holding out for Delta interviews?

Make no mistake, Anderson would have walked away in a heartbeat and not lost a moment of sleep over it.

Daddy Warbucks has enough money to do whatever the hell they want to with 9E. To think voting yes, or no even mattered, is quite naive.

That was my gut feeling. If the bankruptcy judge imposed the terms it would've meant renegotiating again in a year. I'm pretty sure that would've messed up their plans.


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And its thinking like this that also keeps all the regionals from having better or equal treatment by ALPA and mainline pilots. Look at the history of aviation. Name one airline that has remained intact from the beginning. All have evolved from acquisitions and mergers. Unfortunately for everyone at the regionals ALPA and mainline has continued selling out the regional pilots. Of coarse they like to throw out usual excuses "similar gage equipment" or what ever to justify why a pilot at a mainline should be afforded better treatment in a merger or acquisition then should be afforded to a regional pilot. Were the Reno air pilots that much better then any American Eagle pilots? American owned or bought both companies I think but who came out with the better deal? Whether or not its Comair, Endeavor, ASA, Envoy...etc the real question should be when a major buys a regional shouldn't regional pilots be given the same treatment as a mainline pilot? ALPA does like to imply unity or just less unity and less equality for regional pilots.

The market will never allow an FO at a regional to be paid accordingly. Why? Because if management put a bunch of money on the table, that money would be sucked up by the senior pilots. For us to be paid accordingly, Delta pilots would have to give up some of the pie, that's simply not going to happen, especially when we are outsourced labor that is competing against them. The only way for this industry to fix itself is for mainline pilots to recapture scope. However, mainline pilots don't want to pay for it.

Some pilots at mainline think that the regional model is self correcting, and that they don't have to spend any money to recapture scope. This is folly because management, even if forced to fly RJs at the mainline, will not modify their section 1's without some form of buyout from the mainline guys. The C2012 scope exchange was so management could take advantage of merger synergies in the regional sector, it was not an ALPA scope recapture.

In regards to the SSP, my guess is that there is some rift between what DAL executive management wants, and what Delta middle management wants. As soon as senior management at Delta gets wind of what is going on, I think you will see big changes. However, that's not likely to come until the 900's start canceling due to lack of crews.

Window-seat recently joined in on this topic, and he thinks he has all the answers. This topic has been beat to death in several threads on several forums. I would like to point out that it's much different from the inside looking out, verses the outside looking in, and hindsight is much clearer. Anyone that doesn't realize that lacks wisdom and maturity

In reality every time an 8 year FO makes a lateral move they are as much part of the problem for voting in a bad contract. Every time someone resets their seniority it is a win for management. That is probably why Mainline makes sure they beat at least 1 regional up so that way pilot chase their tail and move to the next one. We are showing them that if you make it bad at our current airline we will move to the one that looks better. (Normally means growing) Everyone says well I want to get off the sinking ship that is just as harmful if not more than voting in a bad contract.