Seniority is everything. 99% of the pilot group was opposed to the SWA offer. The senior guys had the most to lose, so even if they had a disproportionate say in the matter, which they didn't, they didn't have a worthwhile reason to take the SWA offer.

There was no windfall, just a seniority integration pig with some pay lipstick.

From the black helicopter:

I ask Gary Kelly if SWA paid anything to enter the bid process or a fee for not winning the bid, he said, " not a dime. In fact Republic came to us and asked us to enter the bid process and it ended up costing them another 25 million."

Gary said this about 2 months ago at the MDW pilot lounge with about 20 other pilots in attendance.

Two questions to ask if I was working under rev BB. 1. Why invite SWA to bid on F9 if you are the only bidder at the time?
2. If you truly wanted SWA to put a bid in why not give an extension to the deadline instead of raising your bid?

My guesses:

1. Because it might have been more worthwhile to get paid out as an secured creditor than to buy F9. It was probably just another option if they needed it.
2. Because F9 controlled that process, not RAH. RAH may have had input, and if so, they may have preferred to go ahead with things at that point.

Was not looking for guesses. Perhaps you should ask BB why they spent the extra $ for F9.

So for the F9 union, they had the option to be stapled to the bottom of the SWA seniority list (bad for the senior pilots) with the possible threat of some furloughs (bad for the junior pilots) ....... or go with RAH who pays bottom dollar and has a less than ideal working relationship with previous airlines they have acquired/merged (bad for both the senior and junior pilots). That's a difficult position to be in. I'm hoping their decision not to take the SWA staple turns out to be a good one for them in the end.

All my best to all of us this holiday season,
Aloha