Awesome. We've been having this stupid argument since the 90's. Care to rehash what the definition of the word is is as well? This fight is about 70 seaters Mr Lifer. As a CAL pilot I have a scope clause to prevent them from flying CAL routes. Management's best claim is that new IAH flying is codeshare. Funny, I'm pretty sure CAL has been flying to ABQ since Varney Speed Lines.

Wendy and Jay don't agree on a completely unrelated issue. CAL pilots don't expect nor need UAL help on our scope. As for the future, the simple fact is your company has peaked and I will make sure of that. I'm actually impressed by the ego of some of you career RJ types. 'It's my flying now and if you come after it I'll sue!'

Wait I take it all back. I bow at the threat of yet more pointless litigation that leads to nothing. Good luck getting your own house in order. Three RJ operators with varied luck in the last decade. Easiest whipsaw opportunity out there. The smart ones will bail win hiring spools up in a few years. You'll be stuck catching the falling knife...

 

CAL Pilots never gave you anything more than 50 seaters so using your interpretation I will do what I need to defend my flying. The Jumpseat's a great place to start. Commute in and out of IAH to fly 70 seaters, you won't be welcome, period.

 

Beautiful. You will make it much easier to shut it down that way. Just remember who pays for your seats. You might also want to consider that the Airplane in your "Position description" is now the airplane NOBODY wants. See Comair.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how well things go with YOUR MEC's in the XJET, ASA group hug. You might want to straddle down off that high horse for a second.

I'd say all in all, coming up with an argument over 1 issue in a merger of this size is pretty dang good!

 

Suffered? You say you are there by choice. According to you, you've BENEFITTED from Mainline's mistakes.

 

Yeah, those arrogant mainline pilots. YOUR flying? Man, you don't pay much attention to the industry do you? There's no such thing as YOUR flying. The paint on your airplane is UAL and DAL. You don't sell your own tickets, you don't take your own reservations. Hell, in most cases, you don't even pay for your own gas. The seats in the back of your airplane you aren't paying for, and you aren't collecting a profit on. You have a contract to do that flying, a contract that will expire one day. Hopefully, we can "right the wrongs" you've pointed out 50 times and delete that flying from your carrier. I think its funny that you berate us for giving that flying up, and then cry about it while we are trying to take it back.

As far as your threats. Who cares? Deny me the jumpseat all day long. I'm actually looking forward to the day when I get to miss a 4 day trip because I'm not allowed on an RJ (with my paint on it) to work. My call to the duty manager will I'm sure result in a few calls around. How are you going to explain that you denied a pilot a seat on an airplane that his/her carrier paid for? There are PLENTY of other regionals out there that are looking to replace you guys yesterday. Whipsaw 101.

 

Maybe you are right since I missed the word "certification." However, using your statement AND the scope clause, notice how it says carriers who ONLY operate aircraft certified to less than 80 seats MAY be used in codeshare. Since you point out that those airlines don't operate ONLY less than 80-seat aircraft, then by extension of the verbage in the scope language those carriers MAY NOT operate under a CO codeshare AT ALL.

As far as what other carriers there are, our scope section defines the company (CAL), express carriers (the ones CAL has a Continental Express agreement with), and complementary carriers (for simplicity sake all other domestic carriers which would include United). United is allowed because it is a merger situation between two companies. The express carriers are not being merged (by any control of UAL/CAL corporate parents that is) under our merger scenario.

 

We(UAL/CAL) are all in a custody battle for our that has been going to Express. Our representation(ALPA) represents both sides now that there are so many Express pilots in ALPA now. Am I the only one who sees a huge conflict of interest? You would never let your ex-wifes attorney represent you in a custody battle for your kids would you?

 

We(UAL/CAL) are all in a custody battle for our flying that has been going to Express. Our representation(ALPA) represents both sides now that there are so many Express pilots in ALPA now. Am I the only one who sees a huge conflict of interest? You would never let your ex-wifes attorney represent you in a custody battle for your kids would you?

 

I had a eloquent post all typed out and hit send only to see it all disappear so I'll just repost something that Joe never responded to before because it definitely applies here.

Joe, at some point in time, you made a choice by weighing all the variables and deciding to make a trade off. You decided that giving up the seniority you have at ASA for the higher pay and long term gain of employment at a major wasn't worth the loss of a good schedule, risk of furlough, moving expense,etc.

I can totally understand that. The flip side of that choice at the time was you realized you wouldn't fly a larger airplane or make as much money as you would have if you had gone to that interview and gotten hired at a major.

What it boils down to is that now you want to have your cake and eat it, too. Even though you made that decision before to forgo the benefits of major airline employment, you now want the whole enchilada, to fly "more and bigger planes" for much less pay than what they would be flown for at mainline, taking jobs away from folks who still want to move up to the majors who aren't as senior as you at the regionals. The junior folks at the regionals don't have that reasonable schedule and decent pay that a semi-senior guy like yourself may hold. I think I can speak for quite a few when I say that if I'm going to be junior, I want to be junior at a major, where at least the dues I pay by being junior are offset by a livable wage. You made your bed by choosing to stay at the regionals, don't try to steal the sheets from those trying to make it to a better career at mainline.

The big question is whether or not enough senior pilots at mainline have learned the lessons of the past and realize how important scope is to the future of the profession, or if they share Joe's mentality of "I'm getting mine, screw everyone else!"

Rant over, but Joe's outlook on this is the epitomy of selfishness that got us into this mess in the first place.

To the pilots of Continental and United, please make scope your number one priority.