Friday Flying Notes – Pilot Contracts and IT Stuff Too

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It’s 5 o’clock somewhere on a Friday. Time to wind down with a few notes for folks that fly. What’s going on this Friday afternoon? Two big things that I think are most notable for flyers.

Delta Pilots Vote NO – René informs us that Delta’s pilots have rejected their tentative agreement with management by a sizable margin. I thought it was 50 – 50 as to whether it would pass and sensed from some contacts that the tide might be turning negative. If I were a betting man I’d bet that the profit sharing formula change did this deal in. Of course, the well-motivated really think they’re going to keep the same profit sharing formula and get a double-digit percentage pay raise too. Prediction – the parties go back to the table, move some money around, and the contract passes at some point. Delta’s pilot working agreement isn’t even amenable until the end of the year. We are way early in what can be a long process.

October 17, A Day that We Hopefully Do Not Have a Reason to Remember – American Airlines announced a firm date for tying down the US Airways brand, October 17, 2015. Here are a few key snippets from the email American sent its AAdvantage members today.

In March, we announced we would shift to one reservation system later this year. And now, we’re on track to transition all US Airways flights to American flights on October 17. At that time, we’ll be one airline with one website and mobile app, and we’ll have one set of travel policies and elite benefits.

We’re working hard to make sure this final milestone to becoming one airline for our customers goes smoothly. During the week of July 18, we’ll begin transferring existing US Airways reservations for travel on or after October 17. As of July 18, all flights departing on or after October 17 will be American flights.

That means that next weekend, American will publish a schedule change that switches all US Airways flights to American operated and marketed flights. They’ll also start moving any reservations booked on the US Airways system (Shares) for travel on October 17th and beyond to American’s Sabre system. Ironically, I am flying on October 17th, just not on American. Given how well the behind the scenes “stuff” has gone so far, I am cautiously optimistic that the reservations system cutover will go well enough not to be remembered.

Enjoy your Friday evening and your weekend!

-MJ, July 10, 2015

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[…] posted yesterday that American will begin the slow drawdown of the US Airways reservations system next weekend with […]

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