From the company: The AE’s run first and they will fill all 145 positions or to the max amount of people who bid it. Next the MD’s run and it will look at their bid and determine if there is a junior pilot in the category or if there is a vacancy. If there is not a junior pilot to them, it will move on to their next choice.

From the union: The top most senior 145 AE’s would initially populate those positions. Then the system goes back and looks at Mandatory Displacements.

From me: So my understanding is they just run the AEs and if 0 pilots being displaced (767/DC9) bid the 717 on an AE then on the first run they're not put into the plane. 0 will be awarded the 717. However, the next run they do the MDs and that's when the 767/DC9 guys who bid the 717 on an MD (and wanted it) will get to hold it and knock junior pilots down below them until they knock people off. Then they post it. So for the DC9/767 guys, they luck out in that there are no category freezes off their MD and they'll hold it if their seniority was going to hold it in the first place. You end up in the same place. But it's also why that count thing on icrew is so worthless.

I'm still saying 1601 on March 19th.



And let's have an even bigger pool, how many times does someone ask if the AE is out?