Most of the retirements are from RSW side, Upgrades would have started anyway.
We would have flown out of the US at some point. AT didn't invent that either. Things move slow here. Slow and steady, thats why/how we got to where we are. Thats how we bought, Muse Air, Morris Air and AirTran. Our CEO wasn't the one begging another company to buy them over the years (AT did that with 3 different SWA CEOs).
You guys are lucky to be here. I know you can't see it, but if GK had told the truth, there would have been no law that required you to be combined. It would have "sucked worst" for y'all then your current level of suck.
You guys all had a transition bid...Y'all made your strategy. Much like your strategy to accept employment at AT. Things change, rules change, life happens. You guys are crying becuase Southwest is trying to manage their company and was a party to the SLI agreement. This is all over spilled milk. This is along the lines of one of our guys that said to me the other day: "If we had voted no, GK would have had no cloice but not to intergrate AT Pilots" - this makes me laugh, because GK has a Company to run, and he is not going to blow a deal over some angry pilots. (just the facts).
Some folks strategy will work like a charm and others wont. I call it "levels of pain". There are levels of pain on both sides.
If you're one of those people that can't look into the future 2-5 years then I would encourage anybody that is not happy to leave and go somewhere else to fly. Fed Ex newhires are going into the right seat of the B777 I'm told. (I didn't even know they had them).
Funny how you voted to allow it to happen. You should have voted no. Free will. Now if 5 people decided for you, you would have room to complain.