Motch,

Yeah, I agree it can get convoluted when one tries to think about the variables you discuss.

To answer the question about me, yes, I'm a LUAL guy that took a vol furlough. I bypassed on the CAL offer over a year before deciding to come back. I'm IAH 737. I was in the first group of 30 or so to get the LUAL recall in Jan. I bypassed that for too many reasons, and yes, am staying on the CAL side of the op until SLI when I will basically be considered as accepting recall. At that point I'll look at the result of the SLI, and progress with whatever the outcome of the combined list provides for time I have left.

The training issues you bring up are certainly a problem. New BES such as SFO would have to be administered under the guidance of the CBA and offered to active pilots before being available to a recall as an unfilled vacancy. Obviously, this will all happen in CCS as that "merger" goes forward. Really should be transparent. Smaller but more frequent bids is all. They will, however, under the new (to CAL) process have hard activation dates (like 3 or 4 months from award) that if not met results in certain options for the pilot.

One thing is certain....there"s gonna be a lot of training going on with retirements, fleet replacement, potential new BES, etc.

Glad I'm just a line puke.

Cheers,
Lee