All the AT people (except MC) and all the ALPA support staff had left for home. The MC was more or less autonomous so they were on their own schedule.

No progress, no results.

The MC was packing up to leave when the SWAPA guys showed up with a six pack and said, in effect, let's talk.

So, now with no support network, 4 line pilots from AT agreed to sit down with the SWAPA MC for, I'm told, some VERY long days until an outline for the AIP was hammered out.

The AT reps (MEC) had little to no input since they weren't aware the talks were ongoing. The 7-1 vote could have been avoided, in my opinion, if the normal process had been followed.

The story is considerably longer but that is the readers digest version I was given by one of the Airtran MC delegates. And, yes, I fault our guys for not saying, "no, we'll be back next week."

That's how the AIP was derived. 4 guys acting on their own. All good people; I know them. But they were lured into the trap and fell for it.

The MC then told our MEC (all flying full schedules, mind you) that this was better than the deal Gary offered and probably wouldn't get any better. (Stockholm syndrome?) The team then returned to hammer out the complete language which, coincidentally, was well under way when our MC got back to Dallas (see twitter feeds for details.)

Now I don't blame your MC for anything they did. I blame our guys for staying without legal staff. They should have walked away and talked another day. But the result is the abortion of an AIP that has caused so much rancor.

Flame away. But at least talk to YOUR MC first.