Timbo,

There are several solutions to avoid the concerns you have raised. The solution we suggested back in 2000 when the ASA, Comair & Delta tie up was kicked around went something like this:

• Pilots from each pre merger airline maintain their pre-merger number for bidding their own equipment.
• and Pilots are given a Delta seniority number (either staple or via arbitration).

Then pilots remain in their own system until able to bid unfilled vacancies on the Delta list. All new equipment is flown on the Delta list.

If there are furloughs, each group furloughs out of their own company order, out of their own list.

Eventually, through growth and fleet renewal, everyone is on the Delta list flying Delta equipment. The good part of this model is that folks bid into openings, mostly when they choose and when their seniority can hold it.

In the ASA / Comair proposal, we wrote a DOH zipper for the regional jockeys and a staple on the bottom of the Delta list.

Ten years later there is a squabble about whether or not this existed. Regardless, this model seems like it would work well in an instance where there was no overlap in equipment (which is by design in our scope language).