I thought it was probably time for an update on Greg's tumultuous career.
The good news is, Greg received his OFFICIAL recall letter to Continental last week. It confirmed his class date of January 3, 2011, just as we'd thought. Greg had been able to log into a system and see this listed a few weeks ago, so we've been cautiously anticipating that this was his actual recall date and the letter just served to confirm it.
Great news right? Well, hold your horses before you get too excited for us. Within days of the magical recall letter arriving, Greg heard the news that Boeing had announced they are delaying the delivery of 787 planes, that were supposed to be delivered to Continental very soon, for another 10 months.
(source)
This is bad, because back a couple months ago all the Continental pilots did a system bid for bases, planes, Capt/First Officer, etc... The bid was awarded based on these planes being at Continental for the pilots to be trained on and fly in the next couple months. If these planes are not at Continental, then all the pilots that were awarded to fly the 787 will have no planes to fly. Greg thinks it's very possible they will have to redo the system bid now since these planes are not going to be at Continental for a while. We don't think they would have recalled the furloughed pilots if they'd known these planes would not be coming for another 10 months. So, this again leaves Greg in a very vulnerable position.
We don't know what is going to happen now, but we are not counting on him going back in January, even though he received his recall letter. There's really nothing that says they can't retract it and tell him that the recall is off til those planes come. Originally, Greg was thinking about quitting his present job and taking a whole month off in between jobs to give himself a break, get stuff done, and be around for the holidays. Now, he said he's definitely not quitting until he's pretty sure his recall is still happening.
Am I surprised? No, not really. I hate to always be "Debbie Downer" when it comes to the aviation industry, but this kind of stuff keeps happening to us OVER and OVER again. I'll do what I always do and be cautiously optimistic that things will work out and his recall will still happen, but I'm still going to prepare for the worst like I always do now.
In the meantime, I'll keep living life like I always do: smooching my dog, enjoying time with Greg when he's home, running, hanging out with my friends, cooking, and keeping my sanity in check!
