Originally Posted by sailingfun

The MEC was not out of touch. They had a list of items where there was a lot of feedback pilots wanted improved. At the very top of the list was a higher daily min and getting rid of 30 hour layovers. CDO's were part of a option to put a package together to achieve that. There were a lot of former NW pilots who flew and liked the trips and that feedback went to the MEC via reps in those bases. I just talked with a NW guy who is mad they removed them.
When CDO's went public it became obvious that overall the pilot group by a substantial margin did not want them and they were removed. The cost to the company to fly a CDO under the TA was going to be so high they would have been the choice of last resort anyway so it was not hard to get the company to agree to the change.
5:15 per day is huge and is going to improve all pilots Schedules. I had a international guy tell me it did nothing for him. He flies KEF and DUB a lot. I pointed out that a 3 day KEF now pays 15:45 and the 4 day Dublins now pay 21.
There is however always a downside to work rule changes. When 5:15 is programmed into the computer I suspect we are going to see more longer trips to generate minimum credit. As a commuter that's fine but guys who live in base may not like it. Watch for whining when the new trip mix shows up.