You ask such stupid questions!!!!!!!!

Why is SWA so much more successful than legacies?
--Where the hell were you 5 years ago...you are nothing but a bandwagon fan of the SWA discount airline pilot guy.
Sure they have an awesome niche...but to ridicule the legacies for not emulating a different niche...you are an idiot...

And I stand by my point...Legacies cannot copy SWA--they are different!!!!!!
If you can't see the difference then no matter what I say matters...you are brain dead. SWA IS NOT WORRIED BECAUSE THEY KNOW LEGACIES CAN'T JUST COPY THEM!!!!!!!!!!!
Under your plan: AA gets rid of all 777/757/767 and MD-80 in order to lower the costs...just like stratton's fantasy guys...aa now offers 2 day service to Frankfurt dfw--Kef--Heathrow--Frankfurt on the 737.

Stratton you are brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is all AA has to do to regain profitability...strip to 1 airplane, fly only pt to pt... and gamble on fuel.

I'm sure you were also screaming at your CEO to gamble on the fuel hedges just like Herb the alc. Your aviation tech degree paid dividends on that insight.


--I'm sure you are so much smarter than Arpey/Kellner...I bet your aviation tech degree from La Tech would enable you to guide an airline to profitabilty in weeks.

You are way to smart to be just a pilot--you belong on Wall Street or better yet...on Trump's Apprentice...

Is it cargobob or cargoboob?

You have to be management the way you are unwavering in your opinion of the majors and their business plans. If your ship is sinking you have to fix the holes in the boat, not just throw out the furniture (aka employee contracts) and hope that it continues to float while still taking on water.

Never did I say that the majors should copy southwest or strip their fleet to only one aircraft type but they should evolve which alot don't seem to be doing. My CEO said there was no money in domestic flying. He must not have ever heard of southwest. You called them a niche airline, right. Didn't they just become the largest domestic carrier? That's one hellova niche. You are right that the majors and southwest are different, southwest makes money. Just stick with your losing money is ok concept.

Fuel hedging good point. The amount that my airline would have risked by hedging was equivalent to a $2.50 increase in fuel prices. Meaning that by not hedging, fuel only had to increase $2.50 before they would start losing more money then they risked. Last I saw fuel is about $25 above that $2.50 mark and yes a bunch of us asked why we weren't hedging then.

Sorry but I don't have a tech degree it's a Mass Comm. degree. Just think how much smarter I'd be if I did though.

I'd love to run an airline because even if I failed they might just give me $5 million to leave like they did the UsAir CEO.

5 years ago I just missed getting furloughed.

I may not win The Apprentice but I guarantee that I would walk all over you and your silly ideas.

I now know where Beck got his inspiration for his 1st single. In case you aren't familiar with it, it was called "LOSER"

Mr know it all... Mr. Monday Morning Quarterback.

"I may not win The Apprentice but I guarantee that I would walk all over you and your silly ideas."

What silly ideas...answer that...What silly idea did I forward???
only opinions and my opinion is that you blow smoke and have no clue!!! Legacy carriers cannot just copy SWA!!!

THIS IS THE BEST: "...above that $2.50 mark and yes a bunch of us asked why we weren't hedging then."

Who did you and "the bunch" ask??? I BET $10,000 YOU DIDN'T ASK A THING. Why are you so worried about the aviation industry...surly, w/ your education and insight about fuel hedging, you made millions off the futures market, RIGHT???

I CAN'T STAND MANAGEMENT AND FIND FAULT W/ SOME OF THEIR DECISIONS BUT YOU ARE A PUNK (confirmed w/ the teenie bopper beck comment) AND DO NOT HAVE A CLUE!!!

Hey Stratton...I admire AA and think they will rise again, but my pay comparison is right on.
As of this week: 98 hire at CAL is EWR 737 Capt...98 hire at AA is barely employed...Not a slam on AA...just the fact...AA WILL RISE AGAIN I THINK!!!!!

Let go of that copy thing already. I never said copy. Southwest obviously does the domestic thing MUCH BETTER (see I can use the caps lock button too) than the majors proven by turning profits after 9-11 while the rest were calling the bankrupcy lawyers.

Pay up sucka. I/we (other employees) pushed the union to find out why we weren't hedging and they (the company) came out with a company news letter saying what the risk/reward was. I did some 3rd grade math and found out that $2.50 was the break even point with the numbers that they gave us.

Why am I worried about the industry, because it is the profession that I have chosen. Unlike management, pilots don't get to move laterally to a new job if the company goes under.

Sorry about that ideas thing. I guess I should have said that you have no idea at all instead giving you the benefit of the doubt that you even had silly ideas. Now get back to the titanic and keep telling people to "remain calm all is well"

cargoboob I never really liked being called a punk so can I be a "metal god" if I refer to you as a band I know, their called "tool".

The "brilliant" eric stratton (you said it not me)

I'm glad that you admire AA but I have no clue as to what comparison you are talking about.

your quotes funny. "AA WILL RISE AGAIN I THINK", that's kind of an oxymoron using the CAPS function isn't it.

Do you remember now?

"I/we pushed the union..." Like I said, Monday Morning QB, you got real smart on the fuel hedging after the fact...WHY DID YOU NOT PUSH THE COMPANY TO HEDGE IN 2001???????????? I'll tell you why...you did not know what was going to happen w/ fuel prices.

Name something other than fuel gambling you would like to see your company do like SWA...you already said that reducing to 1 fleet type is a no go...what else? cattle call seating? eliminate hub/spoke, go pt. to pt.? The legacies tried it...it was called Cal lite/ Ted/ Song and they all suck!

By the way...my company is not sinking...and we are hiring about 30 a month!

How appropriate. Northwest is on top of Southwest. Perhaps that was on purpose

Sorry cargoboob, no monday morning QB here. The past year just proved that we were right about the fuel costs. It's not monday morning quarterbacking if you make the call on sunday before the game.

Here's a big thing that southwest does right, they do all of their own flying. Stop farming out more and more flying to the regions and giving your profits away. Continental used to own Expressjet so all the profits went to them. Now after the sale they have been giving them between $100-$120 million a year in guaranteed profits while they lost money. They made about $600 million on the sale but have given away about $400 million of that and will continue to give profits away no matter who does the flying because no one will only do it for cost. Delta sold ASA and northwest sold pinnicle.

Streamline your operation and get rid of all the extra management. Delta used to own both comair and ASA. instead of joining all 3 airlines and running one operation they had 3 sets of management. yea that seems smart.

Go and take a look at the begining years at AA vs. the begining at CAL. AA's got CAL beat.

now lighten up Francis...