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Quote:

Originally Posted by iaflyer (Post 758985)

This is what is frustrating me now - the company has some great ideas in terms of routes (Africa for example) that could make lots of money. But some aren't paying off yet. Hopefully some of this investment in IFE and Wifi will pay off when people start traveling.

ACL mentioned that someone will have lower overhead and get more business - to a point. Remember Bethune saying "you can make a pizza so cheap no one wants it"? What is interesting is that the airlines that are doing well - really well - invest in their product and pay their employees well. Singapore, Cathay in the international market, and Southwest domestically. You don't see Southwest cutting much (although you can argue they don't have much to cut). But SWA doesn't go to the employees and say "well, we lost money the last two quarters - and our pay is at the top of the pack for pilots. You all need to take a pay cut, so we can be profitable." Nope - the management does what >good< management does - they go increase revenue. They don't make profits off the backs of their employees.

I think the DAL management is on the right track - the graph someone posted a bit ago gave me a lot of confidence in the future for the economy.

Now if the company makes money in the next year or two, hopefully we can point to what we, as pilots, have done to contribute to the success. And get our fair share of that success.

SWA has the most brilliant marketing slogan in the industry. "THE lowfare airline" And in a LOT of cases this simply isn't true. On many markets that DAL and SWA are head to head (which isn't many so I hear) we beat them on many of those routes. But because John Q is lazy, and SWA isn't a subscriber to Orbitz and all those others, John Q says "well, they are THE lowfare airline, so why shop anywhere else? GThey never go to Orbitz or Delta.com because they buy the slogan. I remember an SWA ad that touted that "SWA will never serve airline food", and it showed passengers cheering. Hmmmmm You are gonna get NOTHING except nuts and a cup of coke... and they cheer. Brilliant.

You also know what your are getting with a SWA flight. A 737, peanuts, and no hidden bag charges. Book Delta domestically and you never know what you might get. Spin the wheel....oh no, little plane :-(

Was reading a UPS thread....

A great thing to have in the next contract would be to prohibit any open time flying or JA's in the event of any pilots hitting the street.

That would be fantastic.

Whats a JA? Junior assignment? Inverse assignment? Junior man?

Quote:

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 760545)

That would be fantastic.

Whats a JA? Junior assignment? Inverse assignment? Junior man?

Ah i still revert to my old airline's speak here and there.. JA= junior assignment. Or in Delta land... IA.

Its okay.

I still call a 4-day trip a 4-day trip. I have no idea how the word rotation replaced the word trip. I was confused in indoc but said nothing.

I remember when Continental furloughed again in late 02 or 03, can't remember, but at the time people were getting junior mannged (IA) left and right and they were furloughing. Those guys came back to Coex scratching their heads. And of course Captains were showing FO's their 95 hour lines while furloughs were in progress. I'm sure that went over like a wet fart in church.

Quote:

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 760555)

Its okay.

I still call a 4-day trip a 4-day trip. I have no idea how the word rotation replaced the word trip. I was confused in indoc but said nothing.

Not to worry, now it is called a pairing ;)

I understanding pairing. I used to use that so thats at least normal. The funny thing was I overheard a soldier on the escalator at the airport one day say he was on at 12 month rotation. I was like thats where that comes from, its a military term.

So then I started wondering what else do we do that's adopted from the military and so I just had to ask someone: does the military only pay once a month minus a small "advance"? Is that where that came from? From what I understand, no they don't. So my quest continues to figure out who thought that was a good idea. :rolleyes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 760555)

I'm sure that went over like a wet fart in church.

What's weird about that? That's my normal sunday routine.