Smisek interview
 

Yep........

As a L UAL pilot I could care less what Jeffrey says. I'm more concerned about issues like how to reverse the fact that DAL is going to get 15% profit sharing and we are going to be pick pocketed by some manager behind us while a schmuck wearing his hat is holding fake money bags and smiling.

It is past time for both pilot groups to move on as one.

You really need to watch the entire interview. It basically centered around why a "great" airline like Continental would want to "Buy United with all it's myriad issues."

So are we to believe everything in the interview? Or just pick and choose the stuff we want to believe?

Funny stuff.

"Can't we all just get along?" -Rodney King

UAL CEO: It's been a long, strange trip

I saw it. Do you really think Joe Kernan should be taken seriously? Like I said, we are currently and about to have our collective arses handed to us.

I happened upon the interview live and stopped and watched. What I found interesting is that Mr. Smisek really had no message. The CAL/UAL stuff was really the hosts of the show repeatedly asking to the point where Smisek was uncomfortable with the accusations against LUAL.
I haven't watched a bunch of CNBC interviews but I would have though Smisek would have had more of a message to sort of direct the discussion vice just sitting there receiving jabs about how bad his airline was in the past.

QED. The hollow suit who has never really worked in this industry spewing generalities just to get his ego stroked on live TV.

Dude,

Did you watch the video in your link? Twenty seconds in Jeff says what? "If we hadn't done the merger CAL wouldn't be here today". This is not a them against us piece, he simply states that without consolidation little old CAL would have been severely marginalized. And that there have been issues as expected in a merger this size.

Talk about selective perception of a desired outcome..... Seriously, you need to learn to listen and pay attention your ADHD is shining through big time.

So we all are now choosing to believe what Jeff says?
The fact is that all the CEOs knew mergers would have to happen. I don't believe anyone would have failed but the last two companies standing could have been ugly. The merger of us two was a good decision since AA/USA followed suite. I'm glad we two combined because it makes sense then and now. We all had good/bad and values weighted to each.

Now if we can all stop the silliness about you suck, we bought you and etc.. Or we can take the horrible of both and ride this mother to the ground.

Ps. See Delta's WB order???

Funny, we always talk about how many wide-bodies YOU have + orders. :)

No way to tell yet whether our (DAL) order will be strictly replacements, growth, or shrinkage.

Which is intentional.

Spot on! He's a presentable guy in a nice suit who hasn't shown much dexterity running UA. He's a Wall Street lawyer first and foremost, so a natural fit for CNBC. If not for the Bull market, DALs profits relative to our losses would have crushed him last year.

As for Joe Kernan, he's a narcissist blowhard who thinks his opinions are all that matter.

Becky Quick is OK. :D

Shrinkage. Bad.

Again, the only reason the question was asked of Smisek was that the interviewer could understand why on Earth a "great and phenomenal" airline like CAL would get involved with the likes of United. It's hilarious.

Btw- Jeff has to sell the line that Cal would go out of business because he testified to the fact in front of The Government in order to get approval for the merger.

Regardless, water under the bridge. The truth is that both airlines would have been marginalized without merging with another carrier. At the end of the day, both the lcal and lual pilots are better off because of this merger.

The only intentional shrinkage I'm comfortable with is in the pool as long as I don't repeat a Seinfeld episode.

When your labor groups have the cheapest contract in the industry, your work rules are non existent and your pilot union is run by a bunch of scab pandering management yes men. It is pretty easy to appear that you are running a tight ship.

So for you it's all water under the bridge but it's "hilarious" because you think you came from the cool kid clan? Strange, you weren't a middle child in constant need of attention by any chance were you?

It's hilarious because a L-UAL pilot decided to start this thread and stir the pot, while at the end of the day the context of the statement by Smisek was that of ridicule of L-UAL.

And no, I don't think that I came from the "cool kid clan," whatever that is. I think that both airlines needed this merger.

#1^^^^^^^^^^^^

Once again your desire believe this is overriding reality.

The very first thing you should do after pulling your head out of the sand is to to take a deep breath and look around. All the way around.

Sooo.......not us vs. them again......Anyway, no one caught the slip when El Jeffy said we are done with merger issues? Except those pesky union contracts, everyone is done except a couple of small ones. Flight attendants, and ramp? Just small issues left.

Lips were moving, I saw them flapping...

High-jacking in progress....anyone go to the SFO road show today? Apathy was running rampant. Got lucky and ducked out before it got started.

Oh to hear how we are a well oiled machine now with the merger behind us. Now we can direct our attention to more important things like...hats.

http://cdn.historycommons.org/images...81722-7750.jpg

Its not that hard to just wear the hat. Its part of what we get paid to do.

Which is why you should wear your hat.

Hoss,

And to think that he thought my comment was about wearing hats. Oh well.

Huh? Dude you need to stop smoking that pipe and come back to reality...

LCAL pilot group consistently made more money that LUAL MPG flying group.

LCAL flight attendants also make more money, yes the LCAL work groups were more productive, just like todays United pilot group is more productive with more opportunities for overtime if you want it.

Since you seem to know very little about the airline industry, at the time of the merger the LCAL pilot contract was more expensive than the USAIR, America West ( they operated on different contracts even though they were merged, in case you didn't know), than the American Airlines contract and LUAL contract...you could make a case for the Delta contract in 2010 but remember they had also gutted their Pension obligations like UAL.

By the time of the merger there were no SCABS running the Union, but what did your powerful Union do as your Powerful Global airline dismantle the career of thousands of pilots and:

UAL flew more block hours with RJ's than mainline.

UAL was allowed to have 70 seat RJ's flying everywhere.

UAL parked a whole fleet in a swoop, dismantling the career of thousands of pilots.

UAL gutted the pay of its pilots.

UAL gutted the Pension of its retired and current pilots.

UAL pilots had the embarrassment of flying around aircraft with different color schemes all reminding them of the crappy airline they flew for, sometimes gray and blue, sometimes blue and white and sometimes a TED disaster color...sad. (notice how we are all one color now...just like CAL was..that's what a healthy airline looks like).

While all this destruction of careers, and pride was going on, your almighty Union response was...."Don't wear your hats".....nice.

I can only imagine the fear in Tiltons eyes as he was told by some mid level manager that henceforth the pilots would stop wearing their hats....Fear for sure.

Make sure you listen to the interview again and pay attention to how the reporter compares Continental to UAL....listen....open your eyes, and free yourself from your dream of a United long gone...a United that was the ICON of the airlines in the 90's...that airline was long gone in the 2000's...wake up bro.

Again, next time you run into a CAL pilot make sure you thank him or her for saving your career.

It's like they're still in the denial phase of grief. Midway through the second reporter does round two on the original question as if she doesn't want to believe it's true and he backs off on his first answer.

"Do you honestly think Continental would have been out of business now...?"

"Not necessarily out of business, but marginalized..."

"(Cough cough) Gammy's dead now, gotta go."

Gammy Krantz - YouTube

Gammy and Grampy are both gone now. All the little Bobbys needs to move on. He was spot on about consolidation. We couldn't match the DAL or AA route structure without merging.

:rolleyes:

Added some idiotic words here to make the post long enough...

First time UAL came running for a merger the so-called regional airline said "NO" and moved on, once Delta and Northwest merged the whole equation changed...

So the obviousness of Smiseks response is apparent, a merger had to happen for both airlines...

The question is made in the context of a merged Delta and Northwest without that merger the answer would be different.

Which CAL pilot? The one that was still in JR high when we were burying our dead after 9-11, or the SCAB that was lobbing against us for the stabilization loans?

I dunno about you guys, but I'm just excited that the McRib is back! (for a limited time only)

The cool kid clan? I guess is better than the old bitter geezer brigade. It's over, all this is doing is driving us further apart and helping MGT.

I would like for you to find one CAL pilot who was in JR. High on 9-11.

Wow that was one of the most tasteless posts I've ever read on apc
Congrats!!!

The ones that post on APC seem to still be in Junior High. Full of faulty logic due to age or mental capacity.

CALFO starts this ****e storm.

I agree sleeves,

So why don't you go knock some sense into CALFO if you are really worried about unity. He's the mealy mouthed little twit who was trolling for trouble in the first place.

Hoss,

My post is all about promoting unity. When I see a post that post to a link to a video, the title of which is states that Smisek says Cal would
Be marginalized without United, that is not promoting unity. If we are to take the one sentence title to be a summary of the complete interview, we are missing a lot of what was said.

My point is that you can find a lot of "gems" in the interview that our pilot group can use to disparage one another. One group can feel superior to another. The realty is that both Legacy's needed to merge to thrive in this industry. My point is that no matter where we ended up in SLI, we are all better for this merger. Time to accept and move along.

CALFO...are you really trying to rationalize with Hoss????

This is what they do ....they post some comment that insinuates the grandeur of the LUAL side and the Regionalesque image of the CAL side and when you defend the CAL position from said comments you are called a troll, a divider and an instigator....

But don't give up bro, at some point people of good faith need to stand up and defend their past and where they came from but also being cognizant of the reality that we are one group moving towards a common goal...

You can't do the first and foster the second. When a LxAL captain starts soap boxing about how great xAL was I immediately stop listening and start counting cars on the highway or trying to mentally fast forward the airplane. If you want to move forward and make this place better and better, stop reliving your glory days. You sound like the high school quarterback still talking about that big game when he's 45. I'm all for helping this company make money (and more importantly us!) but quite frankly, don't give a flip about you defending your past in this juvenile UAL vs CAL fight. (That said the UAL guys are about protecting each other, CAL guys are about the company and themselves). Meanwhile DAL is kicking our ass....

Nice.......all for the sake of unity, right?

Purely my personal observations flying with each side. I came after the merger so the only dog I have in this hunt is unity and success. The vast majority are for team work and long term success but when guys "take sides" that's where they seem to be. That said, and I think a lot have this experience, where the CAL vs UAL attitude seems to be most pervasive in the flight attendants.

This. Amen.