Despite knowing that, one guy explained why he did it anyway: "I didn't really want that seat, but I couldn't stand the thought of somebody junior to me getting it before I did." :rolleyes:

I don't necessarily disagree with your post, but I do love the irony that you are essentially complaining how your "friend" is "all about me," and then you spend two paragraphs detailing why he should suck it up in reserve so you can have a raise.

Keep in mind that reserve is not always a choice. Ask the 777 pilots in Sfo that bid in over the last year as solid line holders who are now seat locked and watching their flying disappear.

]I live an hour away, and reserve this summer was awful. I had more days off rolled in 3 months than I did in 8 years at a regional airline

Gotta agree with regular guy here. If a pilot bids an international fleet when their seniority will have them on reserve, yes, they will lose control of the schedule in their life. Think about that before you put that bid in. But the 93% of pilots who don't put themselves in that position might not want to cough up pay and work rules to bail those pilots out of their bad bid position.

That's why everyone should have a concern for reserve rules and "junior guys". You never know when your going to be junior again.

That's not AT ALL what I said. If you read again you'll see I didn't say I was voting YES.

And he most DEFINITELY took the A320 Captain bid by choice. Trust me, I lived through the "forced reserve" for a LOOOONGGGG time. But for the sake of argument, voting down this deal doesn't change anyone's reserve situation for at least a few years. If ever. Section 6 is no guarantee, especially if we are negotiating in challenging times ahead.

Rather premature to comment since the details haven't been published by the MEC yet, but I hardly consider a 16% pay raise as "cave and give". An extra 2k per month take home is NOT insignificant.

Rather premature? Perhaps, but that's half of the fun of the forum.

Originally, one of the points to be discussed was reserve improvements. Now, its rumored that the only real get is going to be 13% on Jan 1st. Not insignificant? OK, I'll agree. But my opinion is that cash ONLY is less than we should have been able to achieve given the leverage at hand. When was the last time the company ever came to us to expedite and advance anything? 4Billion this year, we should have argued from a very strong position. We'll see how this plays out. I hope that my "nattering nabob of negativity" act ends up being overplayed.

I have to rephrase this:

"There's no good way to make reserve perfect. Accept to live near the airport."

There's no good way to make reserve acceptable...

One of the problems in this industry, when looked at from the outside, is reserve beats living in a cubicle in some tower with a 1.5 hour commute each day in traffic.

The problem from the inside is some people will never get senior enough to control their schedule. But neither do those salesmen, cubicle workers, engineers, and so many others who put in an 80 hour work week and try to get to the kid's sports games and all without kicking the dog. Oh, I forgot to mention, while trying to afford the same home we big jet pilots live in.

How do we fix reserve? I have no idea???

Just an observation over the years. Watching the pre 9/11 positive vector, and the current. As well as the post 9/11 negative vector, recession, going through a furlough-shut down-displacements, etc.

During the "good" times, not much negotiating capitol gets spent on reserve. "we're hiring/growing, reserve pilot won't be there long, why waste money/language on them?" seems to be the line...

During the crappy times, "screw the junior guys, I GOTTA PROTECT WHAT I HAVE!!!".

The cost for the current four yr contract was over a billion dollars.

This extension i dont see coming anywhere near 500 million, more if it had to match delta.
Its all PAY, no benefits and it caters to the specific and target votes the company need to get this bs thing passed. It will go to a vote it will pass by great er than 60% and i will still vote NO

The "me mentality" of ive got mine so pull up the ladder at united has always been the case, always.. This will be no exception.