And Now The End Is Near

[funguy2]

mweiss:

I add my congrats and thanks as well. These boards are better when informed posters have a debate based on facts, and I have always enjoyed your postings...

Stop back in from the "real world". While you may not have the time for the amount of postings you have posted before, I am sure you'll still have some insight and off-the-cuff analysis that is better than most.

Best of luck to you.

 

[rescallgirl]

Best of Luck to you Michael. I too will miss reading your insightful and well-written posts.

 

[mweiss]

Thanks to all of you for your kind words.


Bluestreak, the best advice I can give you is to diversify yourself. Flying airplanes is fun, and because of that there will always be a ready supply of people interested in doing it for a living. Unfortunately, that means there will continue to be downward pressure on the wages, so it is likely that we will eventually see pilots who are doing the job out of love, rather than a need to feed a family.

To protect yourself, you must do everything within your power to build a second career as a safety net. Good luck to you.


WorldTraveler, I agree that it's a long shot for UA to make the change. But it's clear that the status quo won't work. What else can they do? They simply must try new things. I agree that they are short on resources, but now is the time to do the major surgery, while they're still in bankruptcy.

While it's true that international routes depend on the feed, they only depend on feed of people heading to international destinations. The low-end domestic market can be separated, while all international goes through the higher-end brand.

I agree that Ted is currently too tightly interwoven with UA. This is a recipe for disaster; the two simply must be fully separated (separate IATA code even) in order to have it work. After all, imagine if you ordered a Cadillac and when you got to the dealer you were handed the keys to a Chevy. That is not the recipe for a happy customer.

 

[Harry Callahan]

Michael:
Great post & loke some of the others I have not always agreed but appericate the insight you have brought. I wish you the best of everything & as others have said, please stop in when you can & let us know whats going on.