Ireland's Aer Lingus forms alliance with JetBlue

DUBLIN, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Ireland's Aer Lingus <AERL.I> said on Tuesday it planned to form a strategic alliance with U.S. airline JetBlue <JBLU.O>, forming what it said was the world's first tie-up between two international low-cost carriers.
"The partnership will significantly extend Aer Lingus' reach into North America," the Dublin-based airline said in a statement. "Customers will now be able to make just one booking which will allow them to travel from Ireland to the U.S. and onto a direct Jet Blue flight to 51 destinations."
Those destinations were across the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean, it added.


Hi Skygirl,

this is huge, not only is this a first, but Aer Lingus is leaving the oneworld alliance to hook up with JetBlue. More intl. carriers to follow...
Update your travel booking software.

 

As the thread says "What has ALPA done for me lately?" NOT ONE INTERCOURSING THING, EXCEPT AGREE TO MY 39% PAY CUT! They can go pump sand!

And yes.... I voted no. Would have voted intercourse no, but that was'nt an option. Funny, no one admits to voting yes?

 

Well since ALPA is YOU, why don't you break out the KY and help yourself to a handy.
Then you could say ALPA has DONE something for you lately! Made you sleep better!

Past.....

 

.........................

 

Again when you say ALPA who are you referring to..........?

Your MEC and LEC reps who you elected. If they aren't doing the Pilots bidding and you don't trust them then vote them out and get someone in there who will do what the majority wants.
These guys/gals ain't magicians. Look at the entire industry as a whole. All Professional pilot groups ( except a very lucky few) have taken it in the shorts. Do you really think this is ALPA's fault. Tell me your theory on how you fight Big Corp MGT's in the Bankruptcy courts?


The only true way to stop a lot of what is going on is to vote with your feet.

Either you as a group say enough is enough and shut the operation down with a WOS or you say "It suxs but I am willing to do it" but I am not happy.
If you choose the latter, you get what you get.
Until it gets bad enough where the majority of you think that way.........it isn't going to get much better.........and the guys/gals you voted in hold no power when they are up against MGT.

 

I couldn't agree more. Well said. The challenge before ALPA today is to make the union relevant again, especially on a national level.

To crewdawg: "As the thread says "What has ALPA done for me lately?" NOT ONE INTERCOURSING THING, EXCEPT AGREE TO MY 39% PAY CUT! They can go pump sand!

And yes.... I voted no. Would have voted intercourse no, but that was'nt an option. Funny, no one admits to voting yes?"

Actually, I did vote yes and took a wooping for it on this site. With NWA supposedly coming out of bankruptcy by June 30, we have an opportunity to try and recoup some of our setbacks as a pilot group. We could certainly use someone with crewdawg52's wisdom and convictions to help guide the rest of the pilot group who obviously were completely wrong in voting yes, in getting the NWA pilot group back on track.

 

In my opinion, the one thing most (all?) of the MECs did wrong was to be so afraid of "the judge(s)" that they agreed to very conciliatory contracts.

With a rejected contract, they might have ended up with the same, or perhaps even worse contracts then were agreed to, but a message would have been sent to management that when things turned around, and history has shown over and over that it will, the pilots will be hell-bent on recouping their losses. Instead, a weak backbone was exhibited.

If I was Glen Tilton of UAL, I would be laughing out loud at the UAL-MEC’s FIN program!

9/11 gave managements a very big hammer in negotiations – actions by the union leadership increased the size and weight of the hammer.

JMHO.

 

Well, that's all good and well except for a couple small details:

Management's "offer" was so bad that the repurcussions would have been just about irrepairable harm to the pilots contract. Most of the bankruptcy judges are activist pro-management judges whose interest lies solely with the creditors and the survival of the corporation. That is their responsibility, not my contract.

Furthermore, accepting the Judge's ruling and come back to fight another day would not have been possible in a Bush administration with a Republican congress, since the nuclear option would have been of the table. The thought that any pilot group would have the strike option leverage with Republicans in power is just simply wrong. The only time Republicans will allow a strike to happen is if they are assured by management that the work group striking will be replaced by scabs, just like in the NWA mechanics strike. This is ideal since it provides for the busting of a union, plus the lowering of wages and benefits for all.

 

IMO you had more bargaining power than you thought. The judge had to listen to your side, otherwise he would have just imposed what the company "graciously offered". I bet the company got just about what they thought they could get from the courts. They would have been stupid to waste the golden opportunity that 9/11 gave them.

Short term you probably would have done worse, but long term is where you really got hurt, IMO.

George Bush is President, not King. He will, ever so thankfully, be outta here in about two years, well before most, if not all the contractural amendable dates. There's no guarantee, but I find it hard to believe that his succesor will be as anti-labor.

But if you want to think you did the right thing, that's fine. We'll never know who was really right, will we?