The problem with "near international" is you guys decided to carve out "other flying" other than what's stated in this agreement. The 737 can fly easily to Mexico, Caribbean, Central and northern parts of South America. That's what SWA wanted anyway. There will be NO over ride at all to any of those places. Since you haven't flown to these places on SWA metal(you may have at other airlines) you will come to find out that over rides, crew meals, better protections on the quality of hotels, third party transportation services, 3rd pilot provisions(if need be), medical emergencies for crews if they get sick or hurt outside the country are important provisions which eventually will have to be negotiated again. Of course the company will agree to all of this BUT at what cost? SWA will want something to. Eventually SWA pilots will ***** about this stuff and it will get fixed. But at what negotiated capital? Which dicey at the moment since GK keeps harping about cost neutral contract.

I think the code share restrictions is the best in the industry of ANY legacy carrier. Having said that Amadeus reservation system that is coming on line here in a few months is a game changer for SWA because the IT infrastructure is going to be in place to do many things that SWA couldn't or wouldn't do before. It's the foundation for many software platforms within the company that desperately need to upgraded or done a way with. That includes code sharing with pretty much any airline in the world. The fight won't be about "near international". Its about "other international flying" that no doubt is in it's infancy at SWA but will show up at SWAPA doorstep in a few years. Instead of being reactionary about this, SWAPA needs to be proactively on this so it doesn't become front and center of negotiations in the next cycle of negotiations. Those provisions won't cost SWAPA anything because it doesn't even exist yet. That's the best part. Then on top of that the new Part 117 rules(for international) that kick in a couple of weeks already address many provisions that have been negotiated over many years in many pilot contracts are now federal law. No negotiated capital required for it.

As far as SLI is concerned, it's done. It is what it is. Their will be guys especially on the Airtran side that will not let this go away. It's going to take decades and probably retirement's for this crap to go away. Even that may not fix it. But it's already polluted with discontent, anger, anxiety, put your favorite word to it. What's a shame is it's going to be a fractured pilot group. A strong union is a unified union. A fractured union causes problems within and management knows it. There is a reason why Randy Babbitt was hired. When I was a kid I saw an airline literary go out of business for spite(hatred for management and even with in it's own unions fighting with each other). Hope it doesn't happen here.