Buyer Beware

[luvn737s]

What are the pilots getting for their concessions? Job security? A chance to help steer the course for the airline? Be an informed consumer. Are you demanding any collateral? Are you offering DAL money at terms better than they could get from any other funding source?

After 9/11 all the airline execs hung out together to petition the formation of the ATSB. Now they all sit back and watch to see who is the most successful at squeezing it's pilots rather than figuring out how to put the fare yield horse back in the barn.

And the biggest question of all- "Has the cat got Duane Woerth's tongue?"

 

[WorldTraveler]

The simple investment that DAL pilots can make is to have an airline that will be there in a few years and is capable of providing an opportunity to earn a paycheck. Unlike other airline employees, pilots are highly dependent on their employer for survival. There are clearly going to be fewer and fewer legacy airline pilot jobs in the years ahead; with some help from the pilots and cost cuts and strategic plans in other parts of the company, Delta has a reasonable chance of being a survivor and superpower in the airline industry (I believe AA will be the other airline superpower). Without help, Delta is probably months from a permanent implosion.

Delta pilots will move from being the best paid in the industry to perhaps middle to upper tier in the pack. After being the highest paid for three years and with the reality that the airline world is going to change, DL pilots should be prepared for the changes that they will face and will still be relatively well paid.

By being near the end of the airline restructuring cycle, Delta and its employees (pilots included) have plenty of case history on how to do restructuring right and how to do it wrong. I’m betting Delta will get it right but there will be a lot of sweaty palms in the next few months.

 

[luvn737s]

Just so we're clear, the concessions aren't a little "loan" to help the carrier get back on it's feet so that it can fight the LCC war with the conceders getting paid back in the future. This is a surrender, an admission that pilots were overpaid for years and cannot justfy their exorbitant salaries even now. This slippery slope must extend to even the regional airline level who depend on exploitative wages to make the RJ operation profitable at all.

It's sad to think that all these years the whole pilot wage issue was a house of cards just waiting for enough scared pilots to help management knock it down.

But hey think of the greater good. At least someone can get a $69 ticket to Orlando to go on vacation. Eviscerating thousands of families livelihoods ought to have some upside.

But if that vacationer holds out, he can probably get the ticket for $59 once more airline employees move into affordable public housing.

 

[Segue]

Just so we're clear, the concessions aren't a little "loan" to help the carrier get back on it's feet so that it can fight the LCC war with the conceders getting paid back in the future. This is a surrender, an admission that pilots were overpaid for years and cannot justfy their exorbitant salaries even now. This slippery slope must extend to even the regional airline level who depend on exploitative wages to make the RJ operation profitable at all.

It's sad to think that all these years the whole pilot wage issue was a house of cards just waiting for enough scared pilots to help management knock it down.

But hey think of the greater good. At least someone can get a $69 ticket to Orlando to go on vacation. Eviscerating thousands of families livelihoods ought to have some upside.

But if that vacationer holds out, he can probably get the ticket for $59 once more airline employees move into affordable public housing.

[post="169286"][/post]​

Here we go again...its the customers fault. No wonder you guys are in trouble!!

I have a friend that is a mechanic at Soutwest, and another that is a pilot at jetBlue. They have nice houses.

 

[emily]

Here we go again...its the customers fault. No wonder you guys are in trouble!!

I have a friend that is a mechanic at Soutwest, and another that is a pilot at jetBlue. They have nice houses.

[post="169369"][/post]​

I'll bet their spouses have to work.

 

[KCFlyer]

I'll bet their spouses have to work.

[post="169380"][/post]​

Gosh...most folks in my neighborhood have spouses that have to work.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Why is it OK for other consumer products to drop in price at the demands of consumers but not air transportation?

Hint….it’s NMBY. It’s ok to demand lower prices for athletic shoes and electronics so companies have moved these jobs offshore and even from one part of Asia to another but it’s not ok to demand lower prices for air transportation because it will mean the erosion of pay for Americans, even if the vast majority of the jobs (but not all) will remain on US soil?

Every airline employee that has ever shopped for a lower priced item (I believe that is pretty much everyone) is equally to blame for the consumer-driven to lower prices. And it can only occur as long as there are people willing to provide that service at that wage.

 

[luvn737s]

Why is it OK for other consumer products to drop in price at the demands of consumers but not air transportation?

Hint….it’s NMBY. It’s ok to demand lower prices for athletic shoes and electronics so companies have moved these jobs offshore and even from one part of Asia to another but it’s not ok to demand lower prices for air transportation because it will mean the erosion of pay for Americans, even if the vast majority of the jobs (but not all) will remain on US soil?

[post="169422"][/post]​

I don't fault the consumer for the $59.00 ticket. I fault the airline that thinks it's a viable business strategy to provide that ticket. Long-term, people choose high-value over low cost. It is very hard to prove the value of safety and stability in the airline industry because of the life-threatening nature of the counter-alternative. As long as airlines provide lower-than-cost fares, the consumer will naturally assume that those fares are sustainable.

Long-term, why would anyone entering the job market choose a career that has no upside potential to offset all the job insecurity? Some top-end airline employees have nice houses, but they surely know they are one or two concessions away from losing them. It's a tough sell to go into a high school career day and inspire anyone to go into a career where they can, if they work hard and play by the rules, someday earn 60% less than what they used to.

So consumers enjoy the luxury of living off the desperation of employees (who may have few alternatives to concessions) to feed the low fare monster. But when the fruit that others planted is gone, what kind of industry will be left? There will be no high-value providers and noone coming behind interested in building a life in the ashes.