Positives and Negatives of getting hired by Delta?

[DBCOOPER]

Megadeth,

Come on man, obviously it's not all night flying...everyone knows that. But seriously, freight companies do a majority of it in the dark. Secondly, i'm sure it takes a long ass time to be senior enough to hold a good sked. with a majority of day flying. Let's not try and sugar coat it. This is why in the pre 9/11 days, most pilots preferred the major airlines over freight jobs.

I'm not trying to say that FedEx or UPS are bad jobs at all, it's just that many people don't dream of preflighting an ancient bucket at midnight to start the "day".

 

[DBCOOPER]

P.S. Megadeth.....I love what you have next to your "ratings". That's great!

 

[Whine Lover]

D.B.,

"..it's just that many people don't dream of preflighting an ancient bucket at midnight to start the "day"."

You are not allowed to talk about the reality of Night Freight here. All the super defensive Freight Dogs will tell you why it's the greatest job on the Planet....Yada,Yada,Yada.

Been there, done that.

Remember, FedEx and UPS are the "best jobs" in the Industry.

That's why all your friends and relatives ask you: " Oh, so you're working there until you get your License to fly people?"



YKW

 

[Papa Woody]

the psych guy would spot that in a second. You would have no chance.


Bye Bye--General Lee

Then how'd YOU get hired?

 

[General Lee]

Even if there were no job reductions between a NWA/DAL merger, a DAL new hire today would still be integrating with a NWA work force where the junior most DOH pilot is 8/27/2001. Regardless of how an eventual integration is handled with slotting, fencing, shuffling, oija boards, pistols at 12 paces, "cage of death", arbitration, etc., DOH is part of the formula and there could be some relative loss of seniorty.

There are considerable numbers of furloghed pilots deferring/bypassing at both NWA and DAL. Thier seniority is protected and when they return they come ahead of you. OTOH the combined airline would be a force to be reckoned with, and you have a number and are on the property, which is still way better than being on the outside looking in.

The sooner you get hired and get bodies beneath you the better. Also consider that even if there is a merger announced, it could take close to a year to consumate, and another year or 2 to actually integrate the operations. The snapshot date used for integration is waaaay off in the future, and you are getting relative seniority in the mean time.

Being a new hire anywhere has an element of risk, however unless you have something way better going, the upside favors going to work at DAL.

Being a newhire at either NWA or DL would mean you could be in the bottom 1% at a possible merged company. As far as DOH is concerned, that will probably be a very very small part of any equation, primarily because we just retired 2300 of our senior captains due to pension concerns, and NW has retired very few. Look for a percentage merger instead if it happens. If we only have 300 guys over 55, and NW has 1000, then it would not be fair to say the least. There could be fences built I assume, like we fence off all of our 120 widebodies for 10 years, and they fence off their 747s. According to the ALPA merger policy, there will be no windfalls for any particular group. A senior group (NWA) merging with a relatively junior group with a bunch of widebodies doesn't mix well. If it happens, expect something unique. But yes, if you are a newhire at either airline and we merge, expect to be in the bottom 1%, until the old guys at NWA leave.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[General Lee]

Then how'd YOU get hired?

He spotted quality right off the bat.

Bye Bye-General Lee

 

[capt. megadeth]

I'm not trying to say that FedEx or UPS are bad jobs at all, it's just that many people don't dream of preflighting an ancient bucket at midnight to start the "day".

Well, you just have to weigh the good with the bad. It also depends on what your view of a good schedule is. Right now, I am happy to hold week on week off with commercials on both ends. I have flown during the day a good amount already and I have flown at night. Most schedules don't have you flying more than 2 legs a night. Then you have some people that would say the schedules suck because they have to work more than one day a month. To each his own ya know?

 

[capt. megadeth]

That's why all your friends and relatives ask you: " Oh, so you're working there until you get your License to fly people?"



YKW

How can you sit here and claim that jobs at FedEx and UPS aren't that great because your family and friends ask you that? Come on....we all know that a lot of people are ignorant when it comes to aviation. People are stupid and that's why we get asked that, not because the jobs suck. I mean, I got asked a few years ago if I was thinking about going to United. The person didn't even know that they had pilots on furlough. How would those people know anyways? I'm not defensive.....I just think it's funny that people think we are all slugging it out all month long at night. Like I said, that's fine....eliminates some competition. I like it and I wouldn't go back to flying passengers to save my life.

 

[Fly4hire]

There could be fences built I assume, like we fence off all of our 120 widebodies for 10 years, and they fence off their 747s. According to the ALPA merger policy, there will be no windfalls for any particular group. A senior group (NWA) merging with a relatively junior group with a bunch of widebodies doesn't mix well.

General,

It will be a real challenge to come up with a fair integration where everyone is equally unhappy. My point to the orginal post is DOH will be part formulations used. Your example above is valid, however it won't sit well either to have a 2007 hire at DAL in front of a 2001 hire at NWA because of a ratio or shuffle. This won't be fun or easy if it happens. Also don't forget that while DAL has more WB's, they are small WB's (767) compared to the number of large WB's (777/747/330), and in that case NW has a far larger percentage of WB to NB than DAL. I'd be happy to fence you guys off the 747/330/787 for 10yrs in exchange for the same on the767/777 :bomb: Regardless it will be a challenge to do it right without getting into a slugfest in the courts and where prostan isn't working double overtime once it's all said and done........

In anycase, nothing is a done deal, and I'm not sure if any of these rumored pairings will actually transpire

 

[DAL737FO]

General,

Also don't forget that while DAL has more WB's, they are small WB's (767) compared to the number of large WB's (777/747/330), and in that case NW has a far larger percentage of WB to NB than DAL.

Not to be splitting hairs but I disagree with your widebody to narrowbody numbers. I agree that we have no whales but basically what a merger is going to look at is pay and career potential. We have 112 true widebodies out of a fleet of 438 aircraft or 25.6%. We additionally have 121 757's that pay the same as the 767 at 158/hr which is 1 dollar less than the NWA A330 rate. So if you add those to the mix then 53.2% of our aircraft pay widebody rates.

If airlinepilotcentral.com is correct then NWA has a total of 52 widebodies out of a fleet of 380 aircraft or 13.7%. The NWA 747-400 payrate is comparable to our 767-400 rate at DAL (177/hr 747 versus 178/hr 767-400) and $11/hr less than our 777 rate.

All this being said I would rather have a merger of DAL/NWA any day of the week and twice on Sunday than merging with US Airways.