There's our problem. In your mind, the solution revolves solely around you and keeping some sort of your fictional seniority contrived by unreasonable ideas. I understand how you don't want to be shoved in DC-9 or be a junior widebody FO but to make all of the planets align and your seniority dreams come true, you are willing to completely throw another group under the bus. Newsflash: It's not all about you.
Things for you to consider:
1) It's not just where you are NOW, but where you will be in on the seniority list in five, ten, or twenty years from now. In my case, I would be retiring in the top 4% of NWA pilots. I would be willing to sacrifice a few percentage points, but when you drop 1500 Delta guys in front of me who are junior, I'd be lucky to retire in the top 20%.
You, Sir, talk about career expectations. Mine were to retire a B747-400 Captain not a B767ER FO.
2) Hitting a home run on the SLI for either group is disastrous. Want to see a "happy" place go to a not so "happy" place. DALPA's proposal would accomplish that quite well.
3) We are retiring more pilots than you. Once again you get to move up the list on retirements that should have been solely ours. And once again you're welcome.
Strictly DOH may not be the best. I'll sacrifice 100 numbers or so, sort of throwing you guys a bone, but not 1500.
good luck
There is no fiction involved here. It is indeed reality.
1) If you are talking about timeframes of 20 years, then your career expectation is NOT retiring as a 747-400 captain. Drama, while dramatic, does not really serve useful discussion rationale and will be met with a whaaa, whhaaa. Whatever career expectation you had, it changed the day that the merger was announced. Nonetheless, the mediators will attempt to cushion that blow.
2) I actually believe that both groups hit a home run. We managed to find a way through a merger during THE single most tumultuous time in airline history. We WILL see airlines go out of business next year if not this year. One or more of them will be a legacy carrier. Many will be national airlines. We can place bets on these another time, but each pilot group have given themselves the best chance for survival via this merger.
As far as the seniority list goes, "home run" will be in the eye of the beholder. I have a feeling that nothing would considered a home run in the eyes of NWA pilots. Believe it or not, I can see the argument for DOH with the appropriate protections for Delta pilots. The likelihood of the arbitrators accepting DOH, even with protections, is nil IMO. The list will look similar to what the Delta pilots have proposed with probably some tweaking, if any. The real question is will NWA pilots accept the decision, or pull a coupe to burn the place down despite their face?
3) You retirements peak soon, ours later. You conveniently leave out that Delta pilots will be retiring as well. Surely you comprehend that you will be able to cash in on OUR retirements as well. When do we become 1 group for real, no crossies counted? My guess is sooner than later. Quite frankly, they nullify each other out over the course of the next few years, as the PAM model shows, and your extra compensation makes up for it.
My advice is brace yourself, you will probably sacrifice somewhere between 100 and 1500 numbers. If I were to guess, it will be in the neighborhood of 1300.
