Hey Hoss. They will go to the MATRIX with Keanu Reeves....

"If you fail to do so, the system will displace you in accordance with the displacement matrix. That matrix, as directed by the MEC, will try to put you in the highest paying category in your current seat in your Base, then in the highest paying category in your seat in the domicile that is geographically closest to your Base."

 

So like....

If you go into the matrix you will be able to dodge bullets and stuff?

 

Final is out boys. And a new Crew Outlook as well. Looks like 32 new DEN 737 Caps, not including instructor paper bids. That's a 20% increase AND a DEN Bus Captain bump is pending.

 

Well, maybe there's a reason they're keeping the training center in Denver.... the company will continue to get some self-inflicted use out of it!

 

Yeah. They trained a bunch of guys that shouldn't have been trained, in bases where they were not needed. Now they are hiring a 1000 pilots, which they cannot train organically. In the middle of this, they are displacing a few hundred of the aforementioned pilots, into a training system that cannot handle the new hires, let alone hundreds more from displacements.

I can't wait to see what happens next. Where is the popcorn.

 

Why do you revel in this?

The 737 upgrades were artificially junior, but the airframes were coming and senior management couldn't speed up the seniority list integration at that point.

If you think the 737 displacements are arbitrary… Well, there is nothing anyone can probably tell you to convince you otherwise.

And obviously with all the widebody retirements and 787 and 777s coming online, that is definitely good news, but as you said is difficult when they are trying to train a ton of new hires as well.

In the end, a quicker SLI and no fences what have lessened some of this pain, but with two different fleets, there was definitely some shuffling that needed to be done. I for one am happy to be a part of and aggressively growing airline. Looking for used airframes and deciding to keep a lot of the 757 and 767 that were slated for retirement is just pure goodnews.

I get that it's frustrating watching management fumble a bit with all this… but being smug and petty might help you sleep better, but I doubt you're doing yourself or others any favors long term

Sorry for the direct attack, it is more directed at all of us who take out our frustration with Jeff by finding vindication in our company's failures

 

I won't try to defend him only to say he is ego driven and has a tendency to insert foot with ease, but I will question the motives of your post.

You defend management and imply the events, post merger, are just part of a pain we must all endure as part of the merger to get it done. Not true at all. Jeff and his senior management team are directly responsible for the situation/pain we find ourselves suffering today. If you think there is anything individually or collectively the pilots can do to fix these problems, you are WRONG!

"In the end, a quicker SLI and no fences what have lessened some of this pain."

You'll have to explain that one Obi-Wan. The FENCE has ZERO impact on the pain being felt by the surpluses and bumps going on today. Guess you're just trying to blame ALPA. I wonder why?

There's a reason they call Jeff FLIBS and we should never forget that. They should get no sympathy or support from the pilot group. Don't let the new uniforms, shiny new airplanes or the appearance of growth fool you. It's still smoke and mirrors.

If Delta, American or Southwest decide to start competing and increase capacity United is likely to suffer. DOJ is looking and may strike a little fear in the minds of one or more of their leaders and cause movement in that direction.

Jeff's merger of equals is failing miserably. He has taken two good airlines and turned them into one of the worse performers in the industry.

Can I buy you bag of popcorn for the show?

 

Extra salt please.

Most airlines manpower is always out of sink with their ops. Almost all airlines that furlough, start with a large group of new hires when they are hiring like gangbusters. United was hiring like gangbusters right into every furlough announcement since 1978,

The current clustef&^K of hiring 1000 pilots, and simultaneously bumping 3-400 into this training mess, is cataclysmic. They have rented sims all over the country trying to train the new hires. A year ago, I spent 3 weeks in MIA for sim training, and did 3 sims during that 3 weeks. Based on the number of pilots getting artificial bumps (>90 days in training), it looks like they haven't got training scheduling unscrewed yet.

They should have trained as many pilots as they could, right up to the SLI, and 6-8 weeks beyond. But at the SLI, they should have cancelled any bids for pilots not currently in training. Instead, they continued training several hundred more, in bases where they were not needed (IAH). They trained a bunch of new hires, in fleets and seats where they were not need as well, as the 737 fleet couldn't handle them. They should have put off their new hire classes, instead of putting them where they were not needed.

The only green shoot in the last couple of weeks, was deciding to put the training center in DEN (or IAH) and not ORD. If they had decided on ORD, they would have to train 80% or more, new instructors to man the new training center.

 

Hold that thought! The "final" was all screwed up.

Guys need to bid at the seniority of guys getting bumped, but some senior guys bid at their own seniority (while taking the bumps from the junior guys). Oops!

They will have a revised "final" on Monday.

 

Yet another IT error....like when they showed DEN backfills on a vacancy snapshot last year...ha! AS IF.