No offense intended to anyone at Continental, but I too would much rather see United go it alone, their financials are some of the best in the industry. The only thing Continental brings to United is different "better" management that isn't hell bent on merging at any cost..

If you think that's what we're bringing to the table - you are going to be very disappointed sir.

I agree with Life...

Would much rather we remain separate from United. Haven't met anyone at this airline "enthusiastic" about merging with you guys.

CAL is a narrowbody airline. Those pilots have a career expectation of being narrowbody pilots. Most UAL pilots can hold widebody FO or Capt and almost all UAL pilot have a career expectation of being able to hold widebody Capt in their career. Just because some guys with 5 years seniority can hold Capt on a 737 in Guam, doesn't mean that some guy who is currently a FO at UAL and would hold widebody Capt for the last 5 years of his career should get shoved behind a bunch of CAL guys who would never be able to hold widebody Capt.

I guess will find out Friday.

Actually my career expectations were to retire as a very senior widebody captain at Continental. Without this merger I would have been a widebody captain for almost twenty years (mostly in the 777 and 787).

I agree 100%, I would have much rather been just a Continental pilot and never a United pilot. We would have gotten a much better contract on our own.

Fleet frozen in time to assume they last indefinitely and no changes, when would be the soonest a L-UAL 1999 hire (most senior working in 2010) plan on being a captain?

Well, B787's are a coming. They have been delayed, but they are coming. Their previous game plan involved reliance on the network access to premium RASM's rather than acquire any additional wide bodies. I agree, but the vast majority of the 737 positions pay 757 pay. Most guys just look at their pay checks to really guage their career expectations. Flying a widebody airplane for sorry pay and work rules would be a step down and a step back for most legacy CAL pilots.

Agree 100%.

I'm awaiting a class date with UAL. Is it too early to tell how long it would be for a new hire to be able to bid DEN as a domicile? How about thoughts on the commute from DEN to EWR or IAH? Thanks.