Bingo! This bears repeating. Unfortunately, many are too obtuse to grasp the not so obvious. We watch the pennies while the twenties go down the toilet!

Other than the idiotic idea to close the ORD 400 base, Cal's Mgmt of UAL has been fantastic! One need look no further than the Shares debacle, the gutting of first and business class service and the loss of a huge chunk of premium pax to DAL.

I used to have high hopes for this merger given the mass of the combined companies and the resulting route network. But the last two years have done zero to inspire my confidence. We used to work for much better companies than we do now.

Yes, so well oiled you slid right into bankruptcy. The only thing more slippery are your rationalizations.

I didn't say the management side was well oiled. I said the international operation was well oiled.:rolleyes:

Good thing the bankers got involved to save CAL with a United merger. I think that plan was hatched while United was still in bankruptcy and CAL unable to pay bills. Banker saved their equity in both airlines. Mistake was not getting real airline people to run the merged airline. But you know that by the day-to-day operation we've experienced - don't you?

I disagree, the 747-8 can be had on relatively short notice. It hasn't been selling well, and there is only a very small backlog. If UAL were to order the -8, I think we'd have planes before TK could spool up training and get a sim.

In general, the 400's have too much life left, (Not ours) and it is an expensive plane for a small increace in productivity/efficiency. Worth the investment? My opinion, yes. CO managers have something against the 747. I have no idea what. The Airbus A350 is a huge gamble, and with the stretched out/delayed deliveries, might not work for our timelines. Again, the -8's would.

777-300ER while a fantastic plane, can't haul the cargo, and deliveries are too far out with a big backlog. I do have a friend that sells new Boeing planes at Boeing, if Jeff wants, I can do the introductions.

Your doom and gloom is getting old. The LCAL 752's are true 9hr airframes and do very well in serving their European cities that cannot support a bigger 767.
The times they have to make a fuel stop are few and far between. I did these runs for 12 years and I'm not making this up.

Didn't you guys have 50 plus stops last winter?

Yup.

But that was also before the brilliant minds decided to use the 757s in IAD which, it turns out, is further from Europe than EWR. (Who knew?) It's not a problem with the airframe but a problem with the route assignments, particularly when it's stretched right to the limit in either EWR or IAD.

Even the press noticed.

Blockoublockin...

CAL management to the rescue? WOW, CAL management kind of reminds me of this guy. More than just a little. Especially when it comes to looking at a map and comparing to the range of the airplane they are about to put on a route and taking a few variables into account like having crews to back it up if something goes wrong. Little stuff like that.

Forrest Gump stupid is - YouTube

I think the 350 is a bit of a gamble. The 380 is junk. It barely has the cargo volume to carry PAX bags, let alone revenue cargo.

Would you in your own opinion rather have Tilton back running things instead of Jeff right now? I am not a Jeff fan never have been... Your thoughts?