No offense, but most of us aren't marketing geniuses. There are a lot of reasons to do a brand/image refresh and I think we check a lot of those boxes. I'm not really worried about the dollars we're spending on the repaints in the grand scheme of things.

 

Says the guy that doesn’t know anything about business. Keep flying a plane bud.

 

It’s not the fact that we’re “rebranding”. It’s the fact that we’re rebranding (some opine unnecessarily) during contract negotiations. It’s asking for “concessions” and then turning around and spending money on a livery that’s just a different shade of blue of what we have.

It’s asking us to conserve fuel on one hand and then turning high CASM airplane (crj 700) into an even higher CASM airplane just to spite the pilots scope choke on the other.

 

Planes have to be repainted anyway, it’s not like they aren’t already spending the money.

 

The 550 isn’t to spite the pilots, it is because scope is working and they are left with few options. I find the 550 reassuring. If they are investing in something like that, they must realize that the MEC is serious about protecting scope and isn’t going to cave. We like to complain that we don’t have a contract, yet they keep spending money. Keep in mind that they are spending money on things that they think are needed or that will improve our bottom line. Paying us more money without a perceived net gain on their side doesn’t fall into that category. It isn’t spite, it’s business. They’re going to spend money on paint, uniforms, image improvements, or other aspects of the operation regardless of the state of a particular labor group’s contract negotiations. People may not like that attitude, but I’m willing to wait for the right contract and not get upset about what is happening on the sidelines.

 

My two cents:

In a couple months we will be one year past our amendable date. We will not get a pay raise for the first time in a long time. The pilot group isn’t going to be happy, at least I hope so.

Why haven’t we informational picketed yet? Last time we picketed Wall Street, Wacker Dr. and most hubs. You could make a valid argument that Tilton & Simsek couldn’t care less about the perception of labor peace. Not so for Oscar. We could get creative and picket outside Oscar’s various speaking engagements. We do have some leverage with Oscar that we didn’t have in the past. Let’s start asserting maybe things aren’t all Kumbaya at United.

Maybe the MEC is waiting until after the first of the year to coincide with no pay raises to galvanize the pilot group? Heck as far as I’m concerned all they have to do is come out with comm that indicates we have reached a point where we can no longer move forward on negotiations because management only wants concessions on Scope and we need to need to publicly demonstrate our resolve (legally of course like informational pickering). Time to publicly embarrass Oscar.

 

There is new ground equipment all over the place in EWR, I’ll look for a General Lee belt loader.

 

But yet when you call to get someone to actually show up at the gate to park you, all you get is attitude.

 

I wish I shared your altruism. We agree that the choke is working. But we diverge on the motivation behind the 550. Although, it offers an alternative to adding premium seats in niche markets, why not add them via a SNB or bringing the 175 in-house and exploiting its true potential? Delta has. And I know the counter argument is “well their WB fleet pales in comparison to our”, which is true. But why can’t we have both?

All reiterate; the company seems to have enough money to spend on:
New RJ’s
Mana Air
Billions in buybacks
Hundreds of million to loan to Avianca
And so on ......
Yet they are seeking concessions.

I too will wait for the right contract, but that doesn’t mean I will burry my head in the sand to what is transpiring and fall for the ah shucks routine.


P.S. I am truly happy we have a management that wants to fight back for market share.

 

I suspect soon it will begin. Filet of Oscar, Core 4, We love you all is well. He sounds like the Iraq information officer.