dualinput

News flash: either merger is going to lead to stagnation for most junior pilots. Without massive retirements the combined airline (either one) would have to pretty much double in size for a new hire to become a captain. Now hopefully an industry leading JCBA will be voted in and FOs will make what our current captains make like at SWA. Seniority movement via growth is going to be painfully slow either way.

If not already a captain or living in Florida and comfortable being a FO for a long time I’d be going where the movement will be and that’s the legacies via retirements. Some version of Spirit/Frontier/JB isn’t it.

jetlagclub

NK Accumulated Sick+Vac (year 1-9): 1204 hrs
B6 accumulated PTO (yr 1-9): 1278

74 hrs difference there... That transltes to almost 15 days off paid at 5 credit per day, basically a month off adding your monthly days off)

PTO/SIC/VAC is the same thing with different names, but B6 Pilots are better off.

This info is straight out of both CBAs.... a lot of people keep thinking we at NK have the best contract, but none of those have actually seen other CBAs and its all just hear and say... we do have good stuff there (best place I have worked so far (applicable) does not mean is the best of the best). That being said, B6 has a superior contract in 99% of the matters.
And that my dear friends, become the standard starting point for our eventually JCBA.
Luckily we don't get to chose, because I have noticed that the general sentiment at NK is that people prefer to go the Green way...
Peace

dualinput

Noted and thank you. I’ll be the first to say we are far from the best work rules. This is a myth sold to potential new hires and the line pilots start to actually believe it. Like most pilots I found my little niche at this company and how I like to exploit the contract for me personally. I’m actually pretty educated on other airline contracts but far from an expert. There would have to be massive change in a JB/spirit JCBA from what JB currently has for me to continue to play my game. I don’t like learning new games unless it nets me more money AND more time off.

Bravo3

Regardless, removing the the dominate ULCC will create a vacuum that F9 should easily fill. True that B6 has a fantastic product, but it’s a product that is already saturating the market place via the Big 4. Just more of the same. But if you fly for a ULCC you know that the majority of those passengers could care less about shiny seats and the perks. They want a cheap seat for a 2-3 flight from point A to B. Even if F9 gets a third of those peeps it’ll still be a huge windfall.

SoarHigh757

https://ir.spirit.com/news-releases/...s/default.aspx

“MIRAMAR, Fla., April 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Spirit Airlines, Inc. ("Spirit" or the "Company") (NYSE:SAVE) today announced that its Board of Directors has determined, after consultation with the Company's outside financial and legal advisors, that the unsolicited proposal received from JetBlue Airways ("JetBlue") (Nasdaq: JBLU) to acquire Spirit in an all-cash transaction for $33.00 per share could reasonably be likely to lead to a "Superior Proposal" as defined in Spirit's merger agreement with Frontier Group Holdings, Inc. ("Frontier") (NASDAQ: ULCC), parent company of Frontier Airlines, Inc.

…”

FNGFO

Can easily fill if you can staff it.

TOGALOCK

The “superior proposal” statement isn’t even really their words either. It’s verbiage that’s defined in the contract that they currently have with Frontier. The JB proposal meets the criteria in the contract and therefore Spirit has an obligation to its shareholders to explore the proposal. There is already a class action lawsuit against spirit with shareholders vs. Spirit over Spirit accepting the Frontier agreement without publicly stating that they were for sale and opening themselves up to multiple offers. Agreeing to look at the JetBlue deal is a matter of legal due diligence, not a belief that they will be taking the offer. Their obligation is to the shareholders and their best interests over the long term. JB offering more money is only a piece of that puzzle.

At the end of the day NK and F9 are still further along in this process than NK and JB. A contract is already in place and, pending DOJ approval, the NK/F9 merger is a done deal. JB is simply waving money around at this point. It’s up to them to convince NK to break off their contract and plans with F9. If you look at all of the moves made by F9 and NK over the past year and a half or so, it’s obvious that this has been in the works between the two companies for a very long time. There’s been a lot of time spent aligning the two companies and their operations prior to the merger announcement was made public. Looking at it from that perspective, NK and F9 are far closer to the end of their merger journey than the beginning. JB is just now coming into the picture and will have to convince NK to give it all up, make all their work towards the F9 merger be for nothing, and pay F9 to break the contract.

It’s like buying a house: You sign the contract, you have money in escrow, loan is approved, and the moving truck is booked. You’re excited and have been waiting for this day since you first laid eyes on that dream home months ago. Now, a few days before moving in, someone with an apparent overinflated ego and sense of self comes along and offers the current owners more money than you and the current owners agreed to. In the end YOU are still the one under contract and it will cost the current owners heavily if they break that contract with you. The other person is nothing more than hot air at that point, but it doesn’t hurt for the current owners to at least let them talk, hear what they have to say and see if it would be worth the trouble of canceling their sales contract with you, or if the new offer screams “too good to be true”. That is where all companies involved in this three way tango are at right now.

People on here are already referring to the JetBlue merger in the present tense, the F9 merger in the past tense, and under the belief that just because JB is willing to write a bigger check that the NK/F9 deal is dead. In reality, it’s still very much alive and is still the front runner under contract until JB can convince NK that it shouldn’t be. This isn’t to say that NK may not ultimately end up with JetBlue, but this saga is just beginning. NK simply agreeing to talk to JB really doesn’t mean as much as people seem to believe it does. It doesn’t make the deal a slam dunk.

Excargodog

Contracts are broken all the time, especially when they haven’t yet been finalized. You give up your earnest money and move on. In the end selling is up to the stockholders, not the board, and even if the board has spent a couple of years preparing for an F9 merger (likely with follow-on jobs in the merged companies for many of them) their legal obligation is to the stockholders, not themselves nor the employees. And the biggest SAVE stockholders are Mutual funds, Vanguard owning almost 9% of the stock. And you do not want - if you are a board of directors of an airline - to have to match your accountants and lawyers against those of Vanguard, Fidelity, and Invesco.

What has been going on behind the scenes for a year or two absolutely does not matter now. A second bid is on the table and it will be assessed objectively as to its BENEFIT FOR THE STOCKHOLDERS and nothing else. Even the viability of the company after merger doesn’t matter (legally) as much as whether or not existing stockholders are going to come out better on the deal. Anything else will bring down a legal barrage on management that they will not survive financially.

8JRMfortheyear

lmfffaaaaooooooooooo

pilotpayne

Uh it’s obviously not a done deal at all.
This house idea is crazy. First that contract with F9 is going to have a penalty if it’s broken jetblue would pay it.

Now let’s say you own the house and these people you apparently like offer to buy it. Cool.
It needs to be financed and there are some quirks in the contract. In walks some (jerk) apparently you don’t like jetblue) and says hey I see you have a contract BUT it’s not closed yet and I’ll offer you 30% more all cash and cover the fee for breaking the contract. Are you going to say no thanks..,,…I doubt it.

This is money and and what is the maximum return for the shareholders….that’s it.