UAL Article

[Ty Webb]

Don't shoot the messenger.

As I said before, the UAL management team couldn't run a Starbucks, and the current UAL picture is still very, very shaky.

If they somehow manage to pull this off for the short-term, due to a 2 billion dollar taxpayer bailout and some corporate financial shenanigans, it will probably still be a very short-lived venture.

Good luck to all the pilots still employed there, but if I were you, I would be working very hard on another career, or at least another carrier.

I am sure there were many once-proud names in the passenger railroad lines, although none come to mind right now.

 

[eaglefly]

Clearly these lenders are on the "inside" regarding UAL managements likely future actions to insure UAL viability and competetivness.

The biggest threat to their long-term viability is the pilot pension issue. Almost certainly the lenders have been assured that if necessary, UAL will alter the pilot pensions a'la US Airways and chop that debt to almost nothing and handing it over to the PBGC.

They know most other employee groups won't give a **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** and it will relieve them of their biggest burden.

So, with the lenders loans (and there obvious "back-room" knowledge of what will happpen) and the governments loan "guarantee", UAL should have no problem floating. This will be good for most UAL employees (and even pilots who keep their jobs).

But, the pilots will take it in the chops eventually with a pension bomb.

The pilots of UAL had better prepare for the future.

Talk to a US Airways pilot for advice.

To expect anything else is living in denial.

 

[SWAdude]

Over the nine years I have been at SWA there has been the on going debate about having a defined pension fund. We all know about the legacy carriers that are no longer and what happpened to their retirements but now there is question of survival and the risk of having a defined benefit. Since US AIR and now maybe United having problems with theirs I would prefer a more secure method of retirement.

SWAdude

 

[Mugs]

The bottom line is that the days of depending on the company you work for to provide for your retirement are over. At the very least, if you don't contribute the max to your 401K every year (assuming you would still be able to eat by doing so), then you are a fool. If any "promises" are there at the end, great. If all that airline stock is still worth something at the end, wonderful. Just don't include any of it in your retirement calculations.