Pennekamp - we have snap back provisions built into our concessionary LOA. See, thanks to ALPA, we were able to come up with creative ways to cut out fair share from the tree. I can't imagine the Ch11 process without ALPA. If the company got their way it would have been unprecedented. Our contract would have been gutted to ridiculous lengths that it would have made Mesas contract look like the old Comair contract.

Lots of give backs were temporary, like de-consolidating highspeeds, which lasted a year and has reverted to as previously negotiated. We all gave up 1 week of vacation for 1 year, if you had more than 3 weeks. We agreed to PBS, which has yet to be implemented. We agreed to give up uniform maintenance pay, which returns this year. We also agreed to freeze our perdiem, which reverts to where it should have been in 2010 I think. And finally, we all took 5 or 5.5% pay cuts. The provisions for recapturing those wages were fleet dependent. If the fleet grew and certain fleet size benchmarks were met, each plane would trigger a certain percentage of wage recovery. Now, the fleet is to the size of what we had before Ch11. This means we will get the full snap back provisions. We get some this year and the rest next. This brings us back to where we would have been in 2008 with our 2004 contract. Not to mention, they were able to negotiate an unprecedented wage increase for the period remaining after the contract becomes amendable to the time a new one is negotiated.

Oh, I forgot to mention the bankruptcy claim that we all got, that gave us all our wage concessions back in advance. So, in the end, all the XJ pilots that were here for bankruptcy and are still here will actually come out ahead in the end. It would have been nice to not have to deal with bankruptcy, but here we are.

 

Well who ever said it was a cheap shot is right on and quite frankly I think Pinnacle to be in the hot seat now I would dare say ,"welcome to whipsaw country", but that would be a cheap shot. Just remember who owns all of your 200's...Big Daddy D. I am glad to be at mesaba and would much rather be here than at pinnacle. At least my work rules and fellow pilots are worth the slightly lower wage as compared to your 900 pay but hey with the snapback coming up here in a bit maybe that will change. As for solidarity , I have a few friends at 9E and I do wish you guys all the best and hope you get Uncle Phil right in the you know what and get what you deserve.(better pay, work rules, etc.) But dont cross the line that Mesaba is like Mesa and that we are some cheap scum of the earth. Alot of guys have hit rock bottom working here during the bankruptcy and well I bet you were not around for Bussiness Express's bankruptcy to know what I am talking about. We made concessions to allow our company to survive and well NW and DL know whats in our contract and they awarded us the flying for whatever reason they see fit. But dont dare call me some cheap scum and throw me with Mesa.

 

right on Farva...everyones just ****ed off cause they didn't get em...

I'm much happier working at Mesaba than anywhere else...QOL is great and pay is descent....not to mention we've had ComAir guys giving up 2 years of seniority to come fly at XJ...something must be right

But we'll see if you remember NWA had an option for an additional 36 900's I'm assuming that the 8 "new" ones coming from the factory are apart of those options...but idk...that means theres still orders on the table...were all of Freedom's delivered

and to whomever was questioning our completion factor, we have 49 Saabs (you know those things with propellors)...ComAir operates an all jet fleet, not to mention Delta's huge block window...I think your management is feeding you guys some BS..the 900 routes you guys were doing in CVG are all going to outstations that XJ has been going to (on the 900) for over 1 1/2 years since the 900 has been at XJ...it wouldn't surprise me at all if those routes were moved to DTW with more connecting options for passengers since it is/was NWA largest hub

 

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, here is a good point. Mesaba is cheap because well over 50% of our pilot group are new hires or in the 1-2 year range. It's not the contract (which is pretty good and was very successfully defended during BK), and it's not the work rules (also generally pretty good). It all boils down to the average pilot group longevity. Enough with the hate out there.

 

I agree and the snapback won't do that much...I'm not sure on the numbers but it's like an extra dollar for a 2 year FO...still way short of what 2 year ComAir 70 seat FO's make...see NWA pays its regionals crap...DAL actually gives you DCI carriers a descent wage...probably why we are getting these frames...I'm just tired of the haters out there who think there better pilots, blame your management and your contract...our company must know what they're doing if everyone else is furloughing and were hiring and bringing in more aircraft...

 

DAL actually gives you DCI carriers a descent wage

is that some sort of pun?

 

if you compare old NWA rates to DAL rates and that of regionals at both carriers you'll see what I mean....there is a correlation

I know there were alot of guys at Mesaba that didn't take the flow cause they didnt want to start out at NWA making 30 bux an hour...now that there making almost double that by going to DAL, you can bet you'll see alot more people taking the flow...

 

1. I havent seen anyone say that they are better pilots.

2. Better management??? Put the airline in bankruptcy, slash the fleet and compensation and then hire new guys at cheap rates....Smart for management, not for us. I don't see any reason to celebrate that we have a low pay scale.

 

You think that was our managements fault? After NWA didn't paythem 30 million in fuel cost what did you expect them to do, give us raises?...i think for the situation they were in they did a descent job with the help of the union...go read the Poor ASA post then you'll find that some of those guys feel they were owed these 900's, pretty remarkable what people will say

 

i was not saying anything bad, simply amused that you said descent where you meant to say decent

and you said it again in your last post

get it.....descent is a play on words