- Some regionals (ie SKW) will stand up for their employees because they rely on a certain amount of labor goodwill. Since it doesn't cost them much or anything to stand up to DL, they will do that.


Really?! Standup for us?! What have you been smoking. If they wanted a little goodwill they'd have kept the health insurance options instead of forcing the HSA on everyone. SkyWest will do what SkyWest wants regardless of what goodwill may be lost by labor. They don't care anymore.

REAS employees only get their SA2s on comair and mesaba.

Not sure what this is supposed to mean. Delta cut Comair's flight bennies and Comair's president says he argued to keep them but no avail.

What exactly did Comair ALPA do that has you so hot and bothered?

I agree 100%. International travel has zero negative impact on Delta, so to restrict it makes no sense. As Mesaba/Compass were sold, we lose all of our "hard earned" pass benefits. I am in no way asking for the same travel benefits as mainline. What I am asking, is to have the same benefits as ASA/Skywest. I would much rather pay $100 for employee benefits and $50 for each person thereafter (max of $200), than to see our benefits cut at the same $50 rate we have been paying.

I asked a Reginal Elite Airline Services (REAS) friend of mine and he said his international travel is unlimited. He goes to Japan quite a bit several times a year. He was a former Comair (OH) employee when the transition took place so I'm not sure if he was grandfathered in or not. He also gets 6 S2's, which are only valid on DCI carriers only. If he were to use one on 9E for example, he'd get priority over ALL other 9E employees, as 9E gets "0" S2's. That's messed up.

Otherwise, REAS always boards as S3C on DCI (unless they use their S2) regardless of aircraft operator (IE: Pinnacle, Mesaba, Skywest, etc). At least the employees of their respective airlines have S3 status on their own aircraft.
However, I don't know why on ASA aircraft mainline employees board as S3"C" and S3CR (retired) and all other DCI aircraft (to my knowledge) they board by DOH as S3...again, different policies for different DCI carriers.
There is a lot of inconsistency between DCI.
Boarding behind retirees is what really needs to be changed. :(

Commuting is a lifestyle choice. I can completely understand having priority for a jumpseat for having to get/to from work over a vacation, but infringing on a benefit enjoyed by every other airline employee in the business is wrong.

Let me expand on this just a bit.

Working for a regional airline is a lifestyle choice. Unless you don't mind moving (along with your family, and forcing them to find new jobs) on the whim of management, you are going to commute if you work for a regional airline.

There's some truth to that. Since Regionals are "contractors" we're at the whim of the mainline (Delta in particular) who like to move everyone around to make sure you don't "own" any hub. You find your airline doing mostly MEM flying one month, DTW the next and DCA the month after. Not to mention when your Regional starts flying for new partners and adds their hubs. Bases tend to open and close more often at the regionals where the mainline carriers tend to keep the same hubs for years. So there probably ARE more commuters at the regionals, who commute by necessity instead of choice.

I am tired of parents and retirees getting on before me. I work for the company, but people who don't work the company get on before I do? This is not right. The other day, this 85 year old mother got on the plane before I did while going to work, when her daughter was with the company only two years. We both got on, so it is a moot point now, but it what if one more passenger showed up? If DL employees want to be S3 on their own aircraft that is great! DCI active employees should at least be S3B while parents/retirees go S3C.

I do realize that each regional negotiates it's own pass benefits, but DL should at least have a standard system that they "sign up" for. I was riding on Compass today and they were telling me that Compass could have full benefits like SKW/ASA/Comair but since they were bought by Trans States, their new owner refuses to right the check to DL for those benefits. Really stinks for a friend I know that has to travel to Japan almost monthly for his family. He's pretty upset I hear.

Boarding behind parents and retirees..I never understood why an active employee trying to commute gets bumped by parents and retirees going on a cruise. How and why do Skywest/ASA and Comair get "full benefits"? Why isn't is consistent across the DCI groups? The former 2 are not even wholly-owned. And how much more would it cost to get what the others had pre-merger NWA? I think most would rather pay the $200 maximum per family per year for full benefits.