Sounds the corporate guy had a case of gloating covering up a deep-seated, long-term envy.

D-bags are present in all parts of the flying business.

The bigger issue is...why, in every class, is there the obligatory guy (or guys) that have to prolong my beerlessness with witty comments, "real world" stories, and out-of-left-field questions? I'm all for a useful exchange of professional info in these settings, but c'mon.

There is such a thing as a stupid question.

That was my experience. I did corporate contract flying for about 5 years after I got on with the airlines and experienced the same then too.

Funny, while I was at Comair during that whole stretch of time, through the furlough, bankruptcy, resignation requirement.... I don't ever recall being solicited for my opinion about hiring Delta guys... which I would have been all for seeing how I wanted to work at Delta.

I must have missed the pilot vote on that issue...

Instead there were dirty looks,, uncomfortable jumpseats, and negative comments..

Now I tell others, " **** I hope we never merge with Delta."

Not that you'll listen, but it was the company that wanted the resignation requirement.. Union had nothing to do with it.. Sure you will say we should have pressed the company.. but I'll argue we had more to worry about given our pay cuts and sham bankruptcy due to Mother D cooking our books. We hired off the street for maybe a year ( while D furloughed) before we started taking pay freezes and pay cuts.. not like we were taking a windfall at the Delta pilots expense. That would have been Chitaqua and Mesa. ( or whatever they are called now)

The RJDC was about ALPA bargaining for scope at Mainline, which was/is a direct conflict of interest seeing how they represented our pilots as well.

That’s exactly right. It was never brought to a vote

although our MEC sought certain stipulations from DALPA, in the end, CALPA was not in charge of hiring. Comair employed a hIring department, which did not include CALPA input. This is a fact that cannot be lost on DALPA. It was all a propoganda play.


We were treated like red headed step children ever since the "merger" .. which wasn't a merger because ALPA chose not to do a traditional merger because they were dead set against the RJ.. much like they were against the 737 and DC9 on the 60's although those a/c brought unprecedented growth and pay increases for mainline. They were against the 737 and -9 because they perceived the loss of the engineeer as a threat to jobs.

On top of that Delta decided to farm out our flying ( and ultimately Delta's) to the lowest bidder because of restrictions created by DALPA. So a carrier owned by Delta, lost flying and growth and revenue, to the lowest bidder, because of a Delta decision. ( on more than one occasion) Republic and Mesa( Freedom) won the RFP's, and did a bang up job.

Delta and DALPA, cut off its nose to spite its face.. they cannabalized one of their own businesses, and revenue streams.. they also sold ASA 6 years after purchase.

The amount of conflicts of interest are astounding. All the while, maybe a dozen pilots went to ASA, many did not stay, and both comappanoes are preety much done 15 years later.

Do you remember the letter JC Lawson wrote? I think it was addressed to Delta ALPA. It stated basically that any Delta pilot who wanted to pursue employment at Comair would have to resign their seniority, unless Delta gave Comair every large RJ order going forward from that point. If Comair was allowed to operate every 70 seater and larger, then, and only then, would Comair drop the requirement to resign our seniority.

I have that letter somewhere. If you’d like me to post it I’ll try to find it. I agree it wasn’t the individual pilots who chose not to help us out, but one of your pilots did and I never saw or heard anyone speak up against him.

I remember there was a letter, do not recall its wording from that long ago. I do know it was not accepted by the Delta pilots all too well. JC was so full of himself if I recall. He didn't have any negotiating power to stipulate RJ deliveries. But thinking about it, why wouldn't Delta put RJ flying at Comair and ASA instead of Mesa?

Just like Delta pilots wanted scope on RJ's, we wanted to keep any RJ's in house instead of going to the lowest bidder. ( thus attempting to keep pay rates up.)

I was all for Mainline keeping their flying. Less RJ's the better. But if there were gonna be RJ deliveries, why not keep them with Delta wholly owned?

My point though is CALPA, up to that point had no input in hiring. Management, HR and our hiring department did the hiring. At any time Comair could have hired who they wanted, when they wanted. With no resignation. ,anagement chose not to because ot played into the hostility towards Comair, and helped with our whipsaw. And seeing how Delta owned Comair, it should have fallen on Delta to find a work for Delta furloughees at Comair, they had their guys from Delta Connection running Comair.

Delta chose to play Comair against Delta pilots, which is ironic because we should have all been pulling in the same direction seeing how we all benefitted from a healthy Delta Inc.

I wonder what old JC Lawson is up to these days......

Probably retired.

If I ever meet him, I'll be sure and let him know what a complete piece of dog**** I think he is.

His little ****ing contest decimated a whole lot of people who would have had some very different opportunities if not for his little ego trip.

Yeah, sounds like someone got a TBNT from an airline interview back in the day.