I agree. I think they will not go with the 50% longevity and provide a much higher percentage factor similar to the Colgan Pinnacle Mesaba award of 100% within each status and category class.

 

The only person who will be happy is number 1, everyone else will be disappointed.

 

Just as long as everyone else will be equally disappointed....

 

Don't know much about his personal life, but I like what he did.

 

Pre-UPA payscales drove some differences in the two groups. Our 737 pay on the -8/900s (most of the fleet) was only about 12 percent below WB pay, so while the QOL was generally better on the WB, the pay difference was significant between WB FO and NB captain. As a broad generality, commuters stayed as WB FOs longer, but locals left for the money of the 737 left seat. At LUAL there was generally no pay difference, so why go to the NB left seat? The UPA payscale changes that, bringing the pay between WB FO and NB captain closer together for LCAL and farther apart for LUAL, so I think you'll see LUAL pilots leaving for the left seat sooner and LCAL WB FOs staying in the WB longer.

I was talking about 2010. I understand the concerns about LCAL growth in the interim.

Agreed

 

That's a good point about the pay change. Will be interesting to see how it shuffles out when this is all over.

 

I'll give it a shot on Bens claim of potentially losing 7 years. In the Ual sli proposal, Ben is 1 number senior to me. He is a 2005 hire at Cal. I am a 9-14-1998 hire at Ual. I have been at ual the entire time and I was lucky enough to not have been furloughed. It would seem to me that he gains 7 years vice losing that time. I no longer have the Ual proposal so I don't know if Bens relative seniority in this proposal was a gain or a loss but I suspect it was a loss. R/S......sluggo

 

Sluggo:

I still think the merger of CAL/UAL will be positive for all of us as soon as we get past the isl and start rowing together. I understand bk, stagnation and furloughs; I left usair to come here. I could have held 756 CA on the last bid, I currently hold 737 CA and held it 5 years ago in 2008. The UAL proposal places me squarely as a nb f/o. I've NEVER been a nb f/o at CAL; so in the status and category criteria, not doh, I'm losing at least 7 years. Whatever the case may be, I hold no ill will towards any UAL Pilot. But like I said, I've never been a nb f/o at CAL or been remotely in danger of furlough. I don't particularly care to do that now, but the chips will fall where they fall.

Thanks for your honesty and candor.

Frats,

Ben

 

Allow me to disagree 100%. Our merged airline has the potential to be positive once a new management team arrives or this one does an about face. The key word being 'potential'.

The current crew cannot see the morass they have created (through incompetence, misaligned priorities etc) and they will not acknowledge the fact that the high dollar customers are leaving in droves. They focus on the bad widgets refusing to do this or that, and the nickles and the dimes. As they do that, we lose money. As we lose money, they cut back the schedule and expand the Barbi-Jet operation.

Painting airplanes is not enough. We can grunt and row our asses off with perfect syncopation until our hands bleed and our spines scream. It won't matter as long as the helmsman is spending all his time having his picture taken and making videos. It won't matter as long as the mid level managers view them selves as disciplinarians as opposed to problem solvers and coalition builders.

I have only seen the airline function this poorly one time. The summer of 2000 when they were giddy at the idea of merging with USAir, starting a fractional operation and who knows what else. It was easy to blame the pilots yet there was no one to park the planes, no one to fuel the planes, no one to handle the bags, no one to do the push, etc etc etc.

Blocking and tackling are essential in this type of an operation. Yet, we are failing at the basics and "costs are out of control" RIGHT!

My rose colored glasses are turd brown. The sad thing is, I'm ready to row.

 

Ben,

If the LUAL proposal prevails, you still won't be in danger of furlough...just the LUAL pilots.