He's referencing UPA MOU 14. Twenty-four month grandfather for the ORD/LAX -400 pilots and SEA 777 pilots. Unfortunately I could argue whether or not the comparison is valid either way.

Yes, except I am not sure it applied to the SEA 777. I agree with you, I could argue either way. Is this what Ben is asking for?

Not sure who did/did not attend IAH town hall meeting. I snuck in there b/c I thought there would be filet mignon for everyone. Disappointed to say the least not even PB&J, but I stuck around to hear what was being said

Summary from Howard, Greg, Beau, and Tracy (scheduling)
With oil down flights into IAH are down some 20%. They are going to shift to that flying to other bases after summer. ORD, SFO, IAD
Each captain displaced equates to 5 training cycles. They value that around 30 grand a cycle so 150 grand per captain. They recoup that after 4-6 months.
Didn't get a specific on number of displacements. Only captain more than f/o. Also they don't want to over displace so IAH may not receive the heft that everyone thinks.

Lots of talk about moral and how SRM was rampant every day. No need to displace due to attrition and vacanccy bids and hiring etc..maybe TDY temporarily or something as I think Den has 320 guys being tdy'd into base after they displaced. Few guys pretty vocal and upset. Even a nice 10 minute one ranging from uniforms to pay stubs.

Howard said something about putting out an email with all info and numbers as they want to be transparent as possible.

That was the majority of it. Minus the steaks.

No idea, but wouldn't surprise me.

I assume that's O&D (origin and destination) traffic. I got grilled here a few weeks ago for stating that traffic would be down in IAH this year and that Houston is in a regional recession. On this thread: http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/ua...on-answer.html

That big a drop in passenger traffic indicates local recession to me, but others can interpret it how they like. That's more than double the drop in traffic that I had expected.

My sympathies to those based in IAH; uncertainty about one's future sucks. It sounds like they're not planning on doing a 'one and done' displacement; more likely it will be several small displacements. With all of the vacancies, I would anticipate the company to try to attrit out as many excess pilots as possible. Training's running at full capacity so there's no incentive to accelerate displacements. At the same time, since a lot of IAH pilots will try to displace into other IAH fleets/seats, there will probably be limited vacancies in all IAH fleets for a while. Good luck to everyone in IAH.

We're paid to move metal, not solve management issues. Management's looking at this in terms of dollars and trying to minimize costs - they're not doing this just to screw with people. Think of it this way - if they minimize costs, it means a bigger profit sharing check for everyone. (trying to put a positive spin on this)

Howard - I know a lot of people don't like him, but I've always had the impression that he's a straight shooter. I'd rather be told bad news than given a BS story.

Not sure about the SFO/LAX 747 but the ORD 747 closing/opening would have effectively been a FLUSH without the LOA grandfather rights.

The Houston surplus is just that a surplus. A carve-out that gives SUPER SENIORITY is a bad precedence and violates the seniority of all United pilots.

Ahhhh I see. Yeah base closures vs merely bumping. I've never seen the 24 months applied to any regular bump out of a base that still exists, but I guess Ben can try to make an exception to save his own seat. But to get indignant at the MEC and management for lacking enthusiasm in his carve out plan is, well.... I didn't see him getting all bent at the multiple bumps from DEN, ORD, or base closures in SEA and LAX. The whole thing smells. Hopefully the bumps will be minimal. They suck. Unfortunately I know from experience several times

When I get bumped in August of this year off the 757 in Denver it will be bump number 5 for me. 777F/O surplussed to 757F/O to 737F/O back up to 777 F/O surplussed to 320 F/O, upgraded to 320 CA,surplussed to 757 F/O surplussed to whatever is next.

This is just as much a flush as the 747 deal was or was not. It's just one is done to LUAL and the other is done to LCAL. I don't think either should have been given special consideration.

How is a complete closure of one base the same as surplussing a small percentage of pilots in another base?