Whither UAL?

On a recent United Airlines (UAL) flight I ended up next to one of their pilots. I've been a Premier Exec on them for a few years, have a quarter million miles and a bunch of upgrades "in the bank", and am naturally playing close attention to their bankruptcy. The ticket agents say "don't worry, we'll always be here". 20 minutes later I read that they're being delisted from the NYSE. I've got to buy tickets for Chicago, DC, NY, Milan, Michigan, Boston, NOLA, Dallas, and Barcelona. And that's just in the next 3 months. <sigh>

So, the first thing to mention is the DOT ruling that other airlines have to honor your ticket if your airline ceases operations. Did I hear this from the airline? Travel site? Agent? Friend? No, it was buried in a sidebar in last Sunday's Seattle Times.

Anyway, everyone's blaming it on the overpaid pilots, right? Well...the guy I was sitting next to had worked his way up to captain on a 737 and was making $182K about 3 years ago. Then they stared cutting flights and laying off pilots, which pushed everybody back down the chain. So this same guy is now a first officer on that same small plane and is making around $75K. He's got a couple of thousand people below him before he's pushed off the bottom of the stack. But he (actually, his union) has agreed to a 29% pay cut (now he's at $53K) plus he has to fly 94 (I think) hours a month, up from 84 but under the FAA maximum of 100.

Now I know people are bitching about the state of our industry, but a 71% pay cut while working 10% more? That, my friends, is dedication.