Horrible article. In one paragraph they say United suffers because they don't have a hub in the middle of the country, apparently ORD doesn't count, so they have longer stage lengths. Also United has no presence in the south east making connections to florida hard. Then in the very next paragraph they say they should close DEN, and IAD.......That makes the situation that they said is bad worse! These analysts are idiots.

 

Agree completely....another opinion piece by the unqualified

 

I do not disagree with you. The problem is that this is being brought up on earnings calls and talked about by investors. As we have seen lately investors do have a seat at the table and their views get heard. I think we better start working together before someone starts believing stuff like this is the fix.

 

Guess I should have specified that the open trips every day were on the captains side. Don't know anything about the FO's.

Didn't take long for this discussions to deteriorate into some juvenile parochial scat slinging. You monkeys can go away- not interested in hearing your dribble.

Yes, they did used to be 3 day trips- very productive but due to part 171 they are now 4 day. That does not explain the S.A. trips that change only 1 or two time zones and still fit within the 171 limits.

Just learned from an FO who I recently flew with said the 767-300 pay was negotiated as it is because the company told the negotiating committee that they were going away soon after the UPA.. This is someone who should know.

Wow, I have a bridge to sell too.

But hey, we negotiated the big bucks for the A-380! It'll be here any day right?

Just wondering if some of that 380 pay might have been captured to pay wide body rates on an existing wide body.

 

It may be scat but it's the way things happened. If the pilot in the know knew then he was part of the JP grand seniority grab. Quit trying to rewrite history and go back look at the information at the time. History doesn't lie but liars do.

 

I think you're half right. If I remember correctly, the last CALALPA pre-merger contract proposal had the 764 in the highest pay band while the was 763 attached to the 762 and 753 in a lower band. The actual CAL pay bands at the time of the merger had all 767s in the highest pay band, while the 747 was banded with the 777 and all 757s and 767s were banded together at UAL.

I agree there was probably posturing by CALALPA in wanting to keep the 764 in the highest band. It had potential SLI implications and was a fleet flown by LCAL pilots and would remain so until after the SLI, so it made sense in looking out for their pilots they would attempt to keep it in the highest pay band. What you neglect to mention is UALALPA attempted to do the exact same thing with the 744, breaking it into its own, new, top paying rate, despite the fact it was banded to the 777 at the time of the merger.

Long story short, both sides did a lot of maneuvering that got us to where we are now and none of it matters anymore... except... we're hiring a lot of pilots who don't carry any legacy baggage and shouldn't be filled up with revisionist history.

 

There was a good discussion recently in one of our publications about why we don't have a bigger presence in the southeast. It basically said it wasn't fiscally sound. More $$ to be made elsewhere.

 

I personally don't see a reason to compete with JB, NK, F9, DL, AA, AY on their own turf. I used to fly the 756 out of EWR we filled a 757 every hour on the hour to MCO, we're doing just fine.

Also even though IAH is not in the east it is way south, and a quick 2 hr flight over the gulf gets you anywhere in Florida you want to be. No reason to waste our resources and money getting crushed in an MCO base just to appease some suit on the outside.

 

Hit the nail on the head. Pilots keep ratifying contracts with this kind of junk in them and fail to hold the negotiators through their reps' feet to the fire when they do it. Look in the mirror.

 

While we complain and berate that we should be "more like Delta," over in the Delta threads, they are complaining about:

-The new CEO hates pilots

-International flying is being outsourced to Joint Ventures and codeshares

-DAL will become a domestic feed for other International carriers

-They will all be flying Super-RJs

-Contract negotiations are at a standstill, and unlikely to be positive despite record profits

Grass always greener?