Bastian will never be the CEO. He's a useful idiot being exploited as the "bad cop." But when the time comes, he'll be "Whitehursed..."

And Whitehurst will be back as the CEO.

Hope you're right. Met them both at charm school and was very impressed with Whitehurst. Not so much with the insomniac.

Does Whitehurst still work here? I thought he left. I did like hearing from him 'back in the day' but I haven't seen his name on anything in a long time.

Last I heard he was CEO of Red Hat Software. Delta is in the rear view mirror for him.

Whitehurst left when he was passed over. Will he come back if asked? I don't know. There are numerous instances where execs have returned to their previous companies after some time away.

His current IT experience might make him all the more appealing, and I'm sure he'd be paid far more here than at his current gig.

I'm just spitballing.

No. He left "to pursue other opportunities" in 2007 after a string of indecisions and bad decisions, the most public of which was talking at the Paris Air Show about Delta ordering 125 B-787. He was gone within 6 weeks of that faux pas.

Of course we "liked hearing from him" as he told us what we wanted to hear. Then he'd go down the hall to a different work group meeting and say something completely different. He'd top it off with a visit to his crowning achievement, the "Velvet Rope Tour" and yuck it up with the Flight Attendants. He was a helluva chief operating officer - I can't think of a thing that he did that's still in use here other than IFS pandering. He loved taking credit for other people's work, and ran away from accountability for his and his subordinates actions.

Grinstein was leaving in 2007 and Delta was looking at Whitehurst and Bastian as internal candidates, plus the creditors committee had stacked the board with people wishing to look at outside candidates for a new CEO. Whitehurst was supported by Kolshack and Gerry Carolan (VP labor) among others, and his people worked really hard to undo LOA 51 to try and take more. They didn't lose any sleep...they wanted to maximize the pain for us and use the leverage they had. Thankfully, they lost. Ultimately the BOD selected Anderson for CEO and Bastian for president.

You may not like what Bastian said in court or at the 3 man panel, but you'd really not like the snake that was Whitehurst. He and his minions wanted a lot more from you.

Thanks for the backstory--very interesting.

Wow, thanks for the info Slowplay!

Yeah, after hearing that, I'm very glad he's gone! I just hope he doesn't come back, and I hope Ed is getting his sleep now that the company is earning so much, while we are still 18% behind 2004 rates.

Very accurate description, he had other boners but most of them were with F/A's at the Velvet Ropes.

OK, that is funny. The real takeaway from Slowplay is beware when anyone tells you only what you want to hear. That includes the Forum... the union... the company... the gub'ment. Where is that Cialis....? OFG