I've been asking for a change in strategy, from "hold everything til contract negotiations" to "take a gain when it's available" for a long time. Therefore, I can't beat up SPA ALPA for changing direction and attempting to make a gain. I agree with what seems to be the prevailing attitude here that we should have gotten more, but I generally support the Distance Learning provisions.

With that said, THIS IS A "BUY IT AND GRIEVE IT" LOA when one considers the "Pilot Protection" section.

Please stop focusing on the layman's language and look at the legal language in the "Pilot Protections" section. THE LANGUAGE IS MOSTLY COMPANY PROTECTION LANGUAGE. YES, I know that I'm yelling.

Sorry, but this Section,

"2. Pilots are not liable for malfunctioning or damaged EFBs, or stolen EFBs (provided there is a police report) except in the case of willful misconduct. The Company will not bear the replacement cost of lost devices unless the pilot establishes he has used due diligence in maintaining custody of the device. In the case where the pilot is found to be responsible for the replacement cost of the device, such cost will be at the fair market value of the equipment at the time of loss."

does not protect us. It protects the company. This means that a lost (or damaged, or malfunctioning - see next paragraph) iPad will have to be replaced by the pilot until the company determines that the pilot is innocent in the loss/damage/malfunction. The comma in the "pilots are not liable", followed by "except" essentially nullifies the "Pilot are not….." verbiage.

Think about this scenario, you use your partition to load an app, any app. Sometime thereafter, the pad locks up. You go to the crew room, (unattended by a CP of course) and request a replacement iPad. The FA supervisor will not issue you a replacement until you provide your credit card and approve the $800 charge. When you protest, the tell you that you will be reimbursed for the $800 as soon as IT determines that no "willful misconduct" occurred. Two weeks later, you call to follow up and are told that the app you loaded into your partition caused the lock up. Cha Ching, another $800 just went into Spirit's profit statement. What do you do? You just bought an iPad and your only recourse will be to grieve the bill. Good Luck proving that your app didn't cause the malfunction.