I just had to hit back a little. By the end of the year hopefully

Good for you, sincerely happy for you. Can’t blame you for wanting an extra $100k on the way out. Still, you have a different view of this deal and will benefit more from it, that’s what I’m trying to say.

which is why it was negotiated with Piedmont first.

If a large amount people sign onto this, do you think management at any of the WO's are going to improve anything while you're stuck here for however many years? So reserve rules and other ticky tack BS that goes on all the time. What incentive do they have to actually improve QoL at all? I'd say they'll just shrug it off and say leave if you don't like it. If you're going to flow within the next 2 years, its probably worth it. So I guess you'd be screwing over those guys. As others have mentioned you can do it and just park the money somewhere and collect the interest which was my initial thought. But a lot won't and would be screwing themselves if they got a call from one of the other carriers. If they want to make this a solid deal, increase the hourly rate and increase flow at the WO's. Which I doubt they will do because that makes sense.

Or just increase the hourly rate across the board instead of these bonus programs with strings.

So how does voting no on this make the company suddenly want to fix issues that they've refused to so far?

Remember when AA came down and offered higher pay rates? This offer feels like that one where it's pretty much a take it or leave it kinda deal.

Last I checked, the LCC/ULCC are majors. Perhaps I’m wrong.

After spending nearly 5 years at Envoy I would caution everyone on this deal. There is NO way this is in favor of the pilots. Managment at Envoy/AA simply couldn’t live with themselves if they let that happen.

As for the money, you could literally make that back in less than 2 years by moving on plus you lock in a seniority number. That seniority number is everything.

Lastly, I wish you all well, I still have friends over there but don’t make hasty deals with the devil. Make sure you understand the place that AA is coming from and realize that if this deal is so good, it must be for a reason. Chances are they know something you don’t.

My guess is

1. Didn’t you all have a contract coming up soon? I would think this will blow a giant hole in that process.

2. AA knows hiring is going to be breakneck down the road and this secures their revenue stream at the regional level without having to worry about people bailing. Again, it helps them, not you. Seniority numbers mean something and have value.

True, but massive bonuses weren’t around when I started. Others got it, I didn’t. My entire first year was standby reserve in NYC while they shrunk us. Yes these benefits are asymmetric, but hardly the first time that has happened. I could argue how lucky new hires are now that there is serious OAL opportunities for them. A deal that raises the bar for everyone (you can afford to be more particular on OAL opportunities) is not a bad deal.

You’re giving AA/Envoy way too much credit. Do you really believe they have any idea what the future holds after seeing how they handled these last 18 months? They couldn’t predict an outcome a week in advance much less several months and years ahead. It’s pretty clear what’s happening here. Attrition is through the roof and AA believes throwing a few thousand dollars will fix it. As someone already mentioned, it’s a win win for us regardless if this works out for AA.

You are not here, so why do you want to influence this? An LOA has absolutely no impact on contract negotiations other than having already raised the bar. Seriously, stay out of it. Nobody HAS to stay. Nobody is telling them that they have to. It’s just offering extra money to get them to think about it. If someone gets a Delta offer with three years to go, LEAVE!!

I get a kick out of people who simultaneously think that our pilots won’t benefit from this while at the same time thinking that it will nonetheless stop attrition. If it’s a bad deal attrition will remain and we will have simply have secured massive bonuses for a bunch of people. If it slows attrition than individuals making the best decision for their situation have been convinced by the extra money to stay. That is called freedom.