Personally, I appreciate your answers and time. You've been very balanced without any salesmanship. I don't think you deserve the way some guys have been treating you.

Thank you

This is not completely accurate.

BOTH are intended to directly enrich current stockholders.

Dividends offer an immediate return on investment that is separate from any appreciation in stock value. This is taxable income.

Stock buybacks are intended to reduce the # of shares outstanding, theoretically increasing the value of any future dividend per share as well as increase the value of the stock itself (which remains untaxed until the stock is sold for a profit).

The reason the DAL stock buyback program is so egregious is for several reasons:

1. Because that money can be used to compensate employees who have previously sacrificed in the past for the benefit of the company (read: bring their compensation up to where it SHOULD be now, not where it should've been in the 1st place)

2. Because the mgmt team is largely compensated with stock, not taxable cash (income).

Simply put, RA is using company money to further line his 17.9 MILLION share interest in the company...a direct conflict of interest IMHO...while concurrently demanding concessions from his employees.

DAL Delta Air Lines Inc Executive Compensation

Richard Anderson's compensation
2010 - $8,041,271 ($6M in stock, not including options)
2011 - $8,854,554 ($7M in stock, " " " )
2012 - $12,575,572 ($7M in stock, " " " )
2013 - $14,375,902 ($9M in stock, " " " )
2014 - $17,589,867 ($9.5M in stock. " " " )

Has your pay doubled in the last 4 years???

Net net...RA is eating from the banquet before his employees. This is a direct abdication of authentic and true leadership. What makes it even worse is that, under the new TA, he and the other exec's will get their compensation & bonuses taken from profits BEFORE PS is calculated for the pilot group.

It all adds up to a GIANT middle finger from RA to the pilots.

.

Thanks Orvil. I realize there are a lot of variables but man it would be nice to see the numbers. I am a FO and very worried about the impact of this.

What's so rich about that Tsquare is how often you put me on ignore. Must have been at least a dozen times.

But you somehow kept responding.

Carl

I enjoy a good chuckle now and then Carl.

If you think 6 billion in buybacks with a market cap of 33 billion doesn't move several needles to any meaningful degree you are either clueless or are hoping the hell we are.

In Bender's case, I'd say it's both.


......

What are you talking about? Nowhere have I said buybacks are a good idea.

I don't think it necessarily invalidates their opinions, but absolutely biases their input. Why? Because they're not being paid to provide input. They're being paid to get educated on the MEC administrations opinion, then go out and spread that word. P2P volunteers who get flight pay loss are not being paid to get educated, then spread their own personal opinions.

Fair enough. I'll be glad to help you in any way I can to decipher any legalese.

Carl

Zimbabwe International Air Line Pilots Association proudly announces an HISTORIC TA that gets them back to their 2004 pay of one billion an hour by 2018. The TA also aligns work rules with 1932 industry standards.

The MEC and NC had no comments when asked about it taking 35 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars to buy 1 US dollar.