Originally Posted by flyallnite

That's another big myth about this TA that is being sold to us. Mark my words, this thing passes and you'll see a big displacement bid at the end of the summer. Here's why:

The company loooves to staff with displacements... we've seen that already. The 717's will be filled with displaced captains off the DC-9 and MD-88's due to aircraft retirements and the increased productivity that the TA provides. The 757's and some 767's will start to be replaced with the new, lower paying 737-900ER, also filled with displaced 767 crews... why do you think they haven't bothered to convert the rest of the 767 domestic category to ER? Because it's a waste of time and money!

The early retirement scheme sounds great right? All that movement off the top will really pull us up the list... not so fast!

If you read the language, the program terminates as soon as ANY ONE CATEGORY reaches critical staffing levels. Guess what? That language is there for a reason. Right now, the 747 is overstaffed. They will allow maybe 100 high paid guys off of that thing and then the whole program stops for good. No replacements needed. Not for another few years actually as Alaska grows and the new fleet of 76 seat replacement jets come online. So don't start practicing those Captain PA's just yet...