Ahhhhhh don't get mad. Im certainly not. I think think your replies are great. Im actually smiling as I type this almost laughing at ya. Im sorry you were forced to work at Colgan after you were hired at Pinnacle. Again great career choice. Two top notch carriers. I mis spoke about your 402 experience. Im glad u found a right seat King Air 90 job. You weren't forced to Colgan either. You choose to move to Colgan or not be employed. You made a choice. Kinda like a Yes or NO TA vote. Ahhhhhh theres my point. AGAIN. Your kinda like those guys that got hired at Trans States and were told GoJets is the only one doing classes now. You made the choice. Shoulda thought about it more and re evaluated. Then you would have more seniority at your CFI job and maybe get to be PIC on that King Air too.
Your totally right though. I'll Hang onto my cockamamie theories Only if you truly promise me that you'll keep making horrible career decisions Because I think GoJetsis hiring street Capts.
Actually I get a laugh out of you. I'm glad you've been fortunate that all of your decisions have worked out and you haven't had a major injury that caused a medical problem, or a bad management decision that you had no control over that might derail your plans. Not everyone is that lucky. If you'd been around long enough, you'd understand that luck and timing have more to do with career success in this business than anything else. Hope your good fortune continues.
I'm not the one trying to tell people how they should vote on this TA. You are. Having been in this situation before at Fly I, I understand that you or I don't have the first clue what these guys are going through when voting on whether to put their own company out of business. It sucks and is a tough call.
All I've tried to to is point out the holes in some of these scare tactics on the junior pilots. For the top third of guys that will stay in the left seat and have a prayer of the left seat in the next five years (and will get the Delta interview), its hard to see how one would vote against this. For the bottom 150 that will be furloughed this year I could see how they would vote for this as well because of the three months of severance. The key here is the 1300 or so that are looking at furlough either way in 2014, and the senior FOs that are taking the huge pay cut, and may not see the left seat for the forseable future. Those are the guys that have the hardest decision to make. My advice (having actually voted on something like this in the past) is to make a spreadsheet, look at the numbers, and see where you are. When I did that at Fly I, the numbers said no, and I voted no. If you can't make the economics work, then there just isn't any point.
What is wrong however, are the scare tactics being used by the company, people like you, and the senior guys on these junior pilots to get them to vote yes. It's wrong no matter how you cut it.
The non rev benefit will be useless, because unless Delta changes its past policies, as an inactive employee you will be reduced to the lowest priority. In other words, some snot nosed rampie hired yesterday will bump you off because he is an active employee. Good luck trying to get to Atlanta or Orlando on a weekend for those job fairs. Even if the TA is voted down, it will take Delta a year to a year and a half to park all the 200s. At minimum there will be some incentive offered to keep people showing up and running the aircraft on time, even in a windown. Comair got three months severance as long as they met performance numbers, and it is naiive to suggest Pinnacle pilots would not get the same thing in a windown. Finally there are plenty of jobs out there right now if you need to stay current. Corporate, 135, cargo, and several regionals are hiring.
Most of the guys I have talked to in this group that will be furloughed either way that have run the numbers tell me the spreadsheet says a no vote. Some say they will vote no, others aren't sure.
I think everybody needs to consider the facts and vote what they think will be in their best interests. Good luck to everyone, no matter how you vote. You're going to need it either way.
