I give credit to the union LEC reps for listening to their pilots and demanding changes to the TA before it was voted on. Also, the NC did a good job as they went back to the company and getting them to agree to take the SDP out.

My grief is with those in the union (who I don't know, or even what positions) who took the "we don't like 30 hour layovers" and turned that into "the pilots want SDPs". They managed to take a part of the job (30 hour layovers) that was mildly annoying to people and replace it with (in my opinion) something that was extremely disliked and unsafe.

Those who thought SDP were "no big deal" were probably thinking of the DTW-FNT or DTW-TVC which were very short, easily under 45 minutes block time on either side. The TA had 2 to 2:15 hour flight segments on either end - a completely different animal.

Here's what about a 2 hour range from ATL looks like (750 nm):



I can't see the excitement of flying ATL-LGA-ATL SDP along with making your way to and from the hotels for your break at the LGA Airport hotel. While you might say, "nah, won't happen" the TA gave the company the flexibility to do a lot. Perhaps the company needs it or figured they should get what they could while we were giving up SDP.

Also, the excellent management we have now may not be there in 5 or 10 years. I want protections in good times so that we don't have to fight for it when times get bad.