Apologies to any and all that my post may have offended.

My sarcasm distracted from the point I was trying to make. That point was that these past couple of years have hurt a lot of people financially. If your financial house is in good order, despite the recession, then you are either lucky or very wise. I bet there are many who are indeed financially savvy, but still taken a hit with this economy, despite their wisdom.

Financial commitments made three years ago may well have been great deals at the time, but now in hindsight are heavy burdens that one cannot just walk away from. Just look at all the foreclosures! Personally I have not been through a foreclosure or a furlough, but everyone knows both are awful.

Well now.. I guess I will just have to reevaluate my opinion of Oscar since his wife is a fellow VOL! :D

Touche!! :)

Have to laugh on that......No, she is a "Lane Kiffin" fan now being that he landed on the "left coast".....

THE U.S.C.;)

God bless Oscar for finding one great lady....good on him!

As SC said, touche! Since I graduated from HS in east TN the irony is that I almost went to TENN but decided to go to the other UT. My wife got the brains and I am still bullheaded.

TS,

I offer my apologies. I too realize how fortunate I have been up until now and count my blessings every day. Many of my friends went to tother carriers and have not been as fortunate for many of the reasons you point out. My observations of the ups and downs of this career have made me very fiscally responsible and luckily my wife thinks the same way.

AT SWA we have a different relationship with our management and accomplish many things with "side letters" that could address a possible furlough and how WE could best avoid it. I know it is a different system and may not be possible for you to accomplish what our relationship allows.

The Oscar

After coach X departed Knoxville, there was much written about him and about why there was so much vitriol directed towards him. His departure stung a lot, mainly because he has a big mouth, and UT fans had his back.. You know the old saying, "He might be an A-hole, but he's OUR A-hole"... Anyway, one of the articles finished up with what I think is very sage advice, and I hope you pass it to your lovely bride. Never fall in love with a prostitute. :D

Interesting that you should say this. Believe it or not, we had... (have?) this kind of relationship with management at DAL. I have talked to several fNWA pilots that are floored that there are not more grievances outstanding at DAL. It seems that filing grievances was a weekly event over there... relax... I'm kidding. Anyway, like ya'll, our MEC apparently was able to deal with conflict well before they went nuclear. Uh oh... I am starting to sound like a dalpa cheerleader.. but I DO realize that sometimes this is a better way to operate, and I appreciate that. Your system isn't all that unique. What is unique over at SWA is that you haven't divertet from Herb's original plan... yet. What is unique over there is the fact that you haven't furloughed... yet. Hopefully you never will, but we once said that at DAL. I'll let you ingest that however you want, but nothing lasts forever. The Patriots were 16-0 one year until they met Eli and the Giants.

I hear you loud and clear TS.....he's our 'problem' now!! 'We' just hope that dawg hunts!! The 2010 class is off to a good start!:)

BTW....when the "plant" is built with his name-sake out your way, besure to post the picture!! Would love to get a laugh out of that!

Seriously....Oscar (even self professed 'Bullheaded') is 2 for 2 on revelations.

Each carrier is going to be different on how they view 'their' own camp's crisis to a certain extent. I'm sure this largely has to do with each carrier's individual CBA's along with other contributing variables such as labor v mgt relations (historically good/bad/or indifferent). Outside of that, each pilot is going to have their own MO on what/why they do certain things. At the end of the day, they make up their own mind on what they need to do, and how business is handled in their own lives. That is perfectly clear when viewing it like that. We all have proven that we may not agree on the various reasons presented, but we can all agree that each person has an opinion, and that opinion heard loud and clear.

Good discussion.

Everybody in Knoxville... misses Monte. Nobody misses junior. :) Coach Pearl was interviewed after the meltdown, and he said (sic) "You know what? I am really gonna miss Monte. He is great!"

TS et al,

Being a Delta guy myself, I know exactly what you are saying in regards to the overtime flying when there are furloughs. Fortunately all our guys gone now are recall bypasses so, as you said, we do not have a dog in this fight at this time.

I think the only way it would work for us is to have the entire senority list on the same page and not answering their phones for any overtime flying whether it be whiteslip, yellowslip, greenslip or inverse assignment. Some one is going to get the trip unless NO ONE answers their phone! This is the key. If we do not have 100 percent cooperation throughout the senority list.....senority rights to the premium pay flying will be abrogated. Being semi cynical, with 12,000+ guys, this is going to be next to impossible.

The problem no one has mentioned is that, during contract negotiations, the RLA has a "status quo" segment to it. We at Delta found this out the hard way a few years ago when the company sued for and received an injunction against the union for violating the "status quo" (the union/individuals trying to influence guys to NOT bid over/open time) during negotiations. This is a very slippery slope and led to the sign in agreement on the DALPA forum.

All of our contracts are different, you look at your own and decide on the proper course of action. That course may lead in different directions based on what YOUR contract has in it.

Any way I just thought I'd throw in my two cents worth and back up my compadre!:D

Denny

Back on topic

Southwest Airlines

Firm orders options
2010 10 0
2011 10 7
2012 13 10
2013 19 4
2014 13 7
2015 14 3
2016 12 11
2017 0 17

We also have 54 purchase rights, do not know how far in advance we can change those to orders. Total with rights is 204. By 2017 still need to retire 90 or so -300 and -500.