Put in your dues with an airline you plan on spending the rest of your career with, you have expectations. That is what most East guys did/do. Back in 80'/90's/mid 2000's, USAir was a final goal. Guys I know used the west as an alternative (a.k.a. stepping stone) to the majors until their number was called to the majors. That is honest. An East 17 year guy sure as %$# deserves DOH.
WP. I can tell you are furloughed from the East side because in the time you spent there you certainly picked up all the East-centric trash-talk. Back in the 80's through the early 00's, other airlines like TWA were ALSO considered "final goals". Ask ANY TWA pilot how his expectations have played out. It sucks something fierce but here is the harsh reality, "
Nothing is assured in this career". At one time guys DID use AWA as a stepping stone to get to places like United and USAir. How would you say that worked out for them? Do they deserve some kind of redemption at someone else's expense because their airline was poorly managed or the economy went South?
Believe me, when guys came to AWA in the mid 2000's, it was not as a stepping stone. The upgrade time then was 7 years and predicted to go to 5 years (or less) to meet growth projections that were backed up by new aircraft orders. Parker was in talks with the city of Charlotte about filling the void that was about to be created by the imminent liquidation of the city's largest air carrier. Post merger, just about everything changed. Hiring stopped. Upgrades stopped. Expansion stopped. Nobody on the West was gunning to push an East pilot out of a slot and they agreed to a "process" of integration. The East pilots did the same but now they seem to think they were tricked somehow. Look at the facts, once you get passed the initial 500+ East pilots that were put on the top of the list to account for wide bodies, the Nic List basically goes 2 East pilots for 1 West pilot. Don't buy into this, "the West steals all the upgrades" crap. As far as the guys below O'Dell, how can you seriously believe a guy who wasn't even an active pilot at the airline should be able to come back after working elsewhere for *YEARS* and have enough seniority to be a Captain on the West? Regardless of your opinion of DOH, how is
that remotely logical?
Nobody on the West buys into the "Conditions and Restrictions" idea because the West pilots understand the industry is fluid. For example, what if we DID merge with another airline? What happens to the West pilots then? The *new* lists would be merged and the C&Rs would be gone. Phoenix would be fair game. If you old pals tell you anything else, they are lying to you.
Beyond that, the bottom line is this: The list has already been decided. Even if it was open to renegotiation (*
which it's not*), who would represent the West pilot's interest? Nobody, Chief, because in the big picture, thanks to USAPA becoming our bargaining agent, there is no longer any East and West. We are one big happy family. AOL is nothing more than a coalition of West pilots looking out for their own interests because it's damn sure obvious that USAPA was formed specifically to do the opposite. With that said, AOL is not a legal bargaining agent and they cannot act as a West representative in that capacity. So who? Ask yourself this, if we merged with American tomorrow, would you agree to disband USAPA and simply trust APA to look out for you because there are more AA pilots then USAir pilots?
In response to your final comment, actually "an East 17 year guy sure as %$# deserves exactly what his"
bidding position gives him. If that equates to reserve FO on the Airbus, then so be it.