Yeah, the theater restrictions in FAR 117 are based only on LONGITUDE, not latitude. It's designed to account for time change. South America is a long flight, but the time change is less than a transcon. So it doesn't help with multiple back-to-backs on reserve. Only a JCBA provision will do something about that at this point.

I do think there is a pretty strong feeling on both sides of the AA/US merge that using the US system, with some tweaks and improvements, is the way to go.

Of interest to me is the fact that the US (East) contract doesn't allow trips over four days (i.e. 6 day Europe trips). I suspect that will change soon. I'm not opposed personally to doing them ... two trips and you've got your month taken care of.