Originally Posted by bigbusdriver

I'm not sure that's right either. I sat through about half of the scope discussion in SLC yesterday. They said RA does not need us to make this deal, he would like us to make this deal. The 717s ONLY come if the deal is signed because he's moving DCI lift to mainline and he can't do it without us. The last of the MD-90 will replace the DC-9. The B-737-900 order (100) will trigger the current 76 seat clause no matter what. The 717 is on top of that. The 50 is replaced by the 76 which is replace by the 717. That is the only way the deal gets done and the only way to move the capacity from DCI to mainline without disrupting service. If RA can not get rind of the 50 at the speed he wants then no 717 no matter what. They said that he would not get the 717 if we did not sign the deal because the long term maintenance plan for the 50 means that if they do the heavy check coming up that they must stay in the fleet 5-6 years. He will either spend the money on the 717 or on the maintenance but not both. Someone else had to have passed through SLC when these guys were talking to see if I have that right. They also said that the only force majure event we had was 9/11 and only applied to the furlough and that the pilots voted on every subsequant change to block hours in LOA 46 and later. The language in section 1 is as strong as the pilot's will. I don't remember block hour ratios going then but I know they didn't go during 9-11. They made a strong case for this language being very difficult to void unless the pilots vote it away. Everything they said made sense and I'm in full agreement that this moves DCI time to DL and is seat positive to DL voodoo forum math be damned.