That's the only way they can give you a five day trip with four LGA overnights like they do on the bus.

At first I thought I would be buying food with my $7,000 severance package.

Now I think I'm going to spend it on the biggest computer monitor I can find.

I can think of a lot more fun ways to spend 7K. Go big or go home...

There was supposed to be one of those smilely things in there

[QUOTE=Scoop;1261974]Yet less then 8 months into the start of the process a substantial number of mainline jobs have been created and it looks like more will be coming from the NY swap.

The contract is not going to be even a 1 percent factor in if we hire or not. It will come down 99 percent to the block hour plan for next summer. The economy will drive that.
Just for your info there were lots of areas in the contract that offset the job loss not just vacations.
1. Improved vacation pay
2. Improved training pay
3. Known absences counting toward a reserve being full.
4. Reserves full at the reserve guarantee instead of ALV.
5. Additional X days per year per reserve pilot
6. Elimation of trip parking. (this one was not costed out for jobs since it was a unintended side effect of the swap board.) Fixing this might offset all the job loss from ALV15 and 84 hours.

The above items are all of the top of my head without evening looking at the contract for other items. As far as hiring or not hiring it bears repeating a common phrase. "It's the economy stupid."

a-chimmy-chang-chong.... a-chimmy-chang-Chinese Raptor?

Point of the original post was that there was a carrot signaling hiring this year. As soon as the TA was signed that went away. Smells just as fishy as the LGA slot swap. How many times do you think the average pilot can be tricked in such quick succession?

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't believe SD said anything about starting to hire this fall. I think he said hiring would start in 2013 with possibility of starting the process (getting ready for hiring) in the fall.

His sales pitch in June stated it (with about 20 caveats). Very used car salesman of him...

Funny, T&G 12-06 never mentioned the economy as a caveat when shilling for the TA with growth forecasts.

"...Conclusion: The analysis described in this Touch & Gos is based on flat system-wide capacity, which is less than what Delta is predicting. If capacity grows, the staffing differences predicted above would be even greater. Under the TA, there are hard caps placed on the number of DCI aircraft and therefore all growth flying must go to mainline. Flight Operations recently announced that they are prepared to begin the pilot hiring process as early as the fourth quarter of this year. This is consistent with the analysis contained in this Touch & Gos. Once the hiring starts, it will likely continue at a steady pace for several years...."

I guess the "stupid" part has to do with believing what you are told during a ratification sales job. The "economy" has become the scapegoat, taking the heat off the fact that this TA was sold to the pilots relying on too many overly optimistic assumptions.