I have a 3 part answer.

1. Spirit is becoming a lower risk outfit literally with each aircraft delivery. The financials, whether it be the absolute stock price or a market cap that is approaching 2x of B6 add cushion to this. No one knows the future but it I will tell you that I personally looked at coming here earlier and the risk thresh hold amongst other things was just too great. I dont view it that way anymore. I would have probably come a bit sooner but I had other things that needed to be resolved first.

2. Delta's problems with NAI/ME3 are in my humble opinion overstated on this forum. Im not saying that they are not a troubling precedent from a labor viewpoint and how it specifically relates to pilots but from a competitive standpoint NAI is sooner or later going to be brought down to its knees by the EU who I might add is right now drafting regulations as a response to FR who started to engage in this first with their MRS (and later Moroccan) bases that will also encompass the mostly unregulated area of labor law in the EU that this falls under. The ME3 are running on borrowed time and money and are not underpinned by sound economics in any form. Euro legacies have to worry about this because for them it is a short term problem and by the time the ME carriers implode they could bring down your IAG/AFKL/LH Groups of the world. Geography is something that fortunately is saving us again just like in various military conflicts. Im not dismissing the injustice that is being done by these carriers from a labor/human rights etc. perspective at all I am just making the point that we are for the most part shielded from its effects or in the case of the EU have a regulatory body that loves passing new laws.

3. To answer your question about looking elsewhere...I am in a different boat than you. Not better or worse, not less or more important, just different. I have no seniority, commute, minimum qualifications so to speak or really various work rules to think about. I am saying this because my reasons for going to an OA whether it be U2, DL or AS would be probably vastly different from yours except for the one where we would both seek sound financial footing from our employer.

I will answer you honestly and tell you that I could probably pick up the phone right now call any of my OA co-workers and employ myself at almost any US legacy or LCC with a 2 weeks notice typed by the end of today. That being said there is not one opportunity out there for me that I believe to be better than the one here when the whole package is considered. Lets start with the fact that in my role I cant commute. That right there unless I am making Anderson/Smisek amounts of money drives a personal distaste of living in ATL or commuting into the loop. I would hate my life before I even left for work, I already did that once at what is supposedly the pinnacle of employee relations in this industry and it is one of many reasons why I am where I am. In a hypothetical scenario that I could commute I still would not do it for my entrepreneurial drive that is telling me to build my own castle instead of sit around in someone elses and be bored out of my mind doing it. In that scenario I wouldnt hate my life before I left to go to work but I would hate it at work. Both equally bad. That is just where I am and as always YMMV.

 

Interesting read. I'm definitely optimistic about the future at NK.

 

There is a fairly good article today that appeared in the WSJ that relates to this discussion.

You can find it here: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/southw...023800228.html

Have a look at the airfare table from said article:

 

I will answer you honestly and tell you that I could probably pick up the phone right now call any of my OA co-workers and employ myself at almost any US legacy or LCC with a 2 weeks notice typed by the end of today.

RP4242 I want some of what you are smokin.

 

bwaaahahah.

 

Haha, I was thinking the same thing!!!

 

saw this in the WSJ this morning, the disparities are pretty fascinating.



@ Al Czervik, Shrek - I dont think RP4242 is referring to a pilot position at another legacy...

 

Today I learned from from another pilot that we could have iPads by the end of the year provided:
1) 2 of our 3 days of recurrent are now home study
2) We give back 4 hours of pay for 1 of those 2 days.
So the company is saving money on hotels for us in FLL, saving on per diem, able sell more seats to passengers with less deadhead flights for us to go to FLL, saving money on paper and toner for the release (much more than you might think), saving money on people to work in the classroom, and they still want more? No thanks. 160-740 per year, per pilot lost so they can save themselves money? I must be missing something here. I hope our union is smarter than this joke of an offer, and I hope the individual who mentioned this to me was not seriously considering it.

 

What is unbelievable about what I said? I dont fly. Your hiring process and what you go through is vastly different than what I do. If I was flying I would never make that statement. Working in a position that deals with strategic and sensitive information over a span of a few airlines you build up a networking base of people that you know and worked with. As long as you have a good reputation + the fact you have a track record of working at profitable airlines you have a slew of opportunities.

How do you think I came to this place? Went to a job fair? You're comparing apples to oranges.

Thats exactly right. I appreciate actually reading through what I wrote.

The WN bar is pretty telling but you have to wonder about B6. A carrier with even higher costs than SWA that is unable to draw a fare premium, if you listen to the investor calls they are consistently blasted on the fact that the product does not equate to sustainable fares. A bigger, more complicated VX of sorts.

 

I assumed you were a pilot? So you work in Miramar?