When the planes starting being painted in the mainline partners paint scheme vs codeshare.

 

As a DCI pilot, I can tell with about 90 percent accuracy whether especially the captain was FNWA or DAL. The FNWA pilots are much more friendly to the DCI pilots on whole. My point still stands. The DCI pilots are doing the exact same job, flying the exact same passengers. If they aren't good enough to be Delta pilots without interviewing and being blessed by Delta, why have you let some of them fly Delta passengers on Delta painted aircraft, most of which are also owned by Delta for decades now?

 

Who were they?

Because they were in the minority.

 

For the bolded, I'm glad you admit that. You wanted to take the runway, reach V1 and then hash out the details. All part of "the process" in all its righteousness. What if the arbitrator gave full or partial relative? Oh well, its the process!

By not agreeing to a staple on the front end there was no way it stood any chance.

As for the interview, its pretty much (almost exactly) what it always was. The physical is gone, but the rest of it remains. There is still a psych component that consists of I think a couple tests comprised of many hundreds of questions and an interview, in Midtown. The cog test, knowledge test and panel interview remain as well.

The argument that interviews are bogus because merged pilots didn't do them is ridiculous. What airline has ever said "well we merged with XYZ and took their pilots, so let's get rid of interviews"?

There was zero chance the top ASA/CMR pilot was ever, ever, ever going to be one number senior to the DL plug. Ever. Going for a land grab while wraping yourself around "the process" wasn't just an assault on the DL pilot group, it ended up tanking your own efforts and costing many ASA/CMR pilots what *may have been* a spot on the DL list…in their seniority order, at the bottom.

The PID guys thought they had it locked down and they went for it. You are right that they didn't expect DOH, but they did expect something greater than a staple. They knew the 20 year RJ guy wasn't going to likely slide on over to 767 Captain, but they absolutely did think that the 20 year RJ guy was going to get a lot more than a staple. And they intended to "go for it" by any means necessary. They overplayed their hand in a miscalculated fit of optimistic greed and in differing yet similar ways, all three groups suffered as a result.

 

I don't know anyone at DL that looks down their noses at regional pilots. You've been consuming too many stereotypical "van admiral" stories from the 80's or whatever.

I've observed a LOT of regional jumpseaters on DL flights. For every 1 DL pilot that is prickly towards them, I've seen 100 welcome them aboard with open arms, or take their own bags downstairs to make room for the regional pilot's bag, or take the FA jumpseat to get them on. And 9 out of the 10 of that 1 in 100 that were jerks would have been jerks to anyone. But I'm willing to bet there isn't a regional airline around that doesn't have their 1%ers that are jerks.

When you accuse others so broadly, and so baselessly, of having a chip on their shoulder when its not true, it kind of makes you look like you have one on yours.

Everyone's hiring right now and likely will be for a while. Want a better airline job? Do the work and prep and get a better airline job. I'm sure you're qualified WRT skill. There are other things they look at though, personality being one of the big ones.

Don't get bogged down with defensive pessimism or blame others. Stick with it, and always work to improve yourself. You'll get to where you want to be.

 

Your buddy Sailingfun, who was in the DALPA "inner circle" says it doesn't matter what ASA and CMR did. He says ALPA doesn't control mergers and can't force them. He says it is purely a management function and wouldn't have happened regardless of a pre-nup. What say you?

 

Gloopy, I both jumpseat and DH on Delta a lot. I get treated good either way. However, there is a difference between the FNWA crews and the LDAL pilots. I can't describe it, but there is a different feeling. We notice most when we deadhead and aren't jumpseating. The FNWA crews are much more friendly. We all notice it. Every airline has a culture. The DAL culture is different than all the other legacy carriers. Sorry if you find that offensive, but it exists. You can tell a difference between the DAL and Western guys usually too.

I appreciate your concern for me. I'm happy where I'm at. I'm too old to move on. This is a second carrier for me and as I said before, my previous profession didn't have such a divide between members of the same profession. In addition, the pay and lifestyle didn't have such a wide divide between the bottom and top of the same job as this one does. For the life of me, I don't understand why there is such a difference between the top and bottom in this profession. It doesn't exist like this in any other profession.

 

I seem to remember ALPA can only force a merger if there is "operational integration." I don't think that was ever the plan with DAL and CMR/ASA, or UAL with ARW, or USAir with whoever they brought. It was about control.

 

You are correct in most of your assertions. The 20 year regional guys would never have accepted a staple and the DAL guys never would have offered more. Yes, the PID failed because of massive egos on the DAL side. No, the PID wasn't a "land grab", it was a request for ALPA to follow its own rules. instead, ALPA chose to change the rules. Never before had two ALPA carriers, with significant operational integration been acquired by a larger carrier and not merged into the larger carrier, much less each other.

My question to you is why do you feel this is fair? Why do you feel they were inferior to you? You both do the exact same job for the same company. Flying a heavy doesn't make you a better pilot than flying an RJ. In fact, it probably makes you less proficient simply because you fly less.

 

It's career expectations; Losing seniority in a merger is horrifying, ask me how I know..... It's even more horrifying when the person who is going ahead of you makes considerably less, and was always going to make less. ALPA merger policy is broken in this regard, you can't have regionals with mainline in the same union, it simply doesn't work. There is zero chance of the regionals going away so long as ALPA represents us, because every merger will be seen as a seniority grab, even if it's not. Thus ALPA can not even begin to fight to take back any of that flying. They can simply just hold the line, and hope the market eliminates that flying by itself. The problem with this though is the market only appears to be eliminating Delta's regional flying, due to the arrogance of mainline. It's going to be interesting to see what Delta does, but they have already RFP'd a lot of flying, and there are no takers. Meanwhile, hundreds of our guys flock to AA, and UAL's regionals, resetting their longevity in the process.