Originally Posted by
gloopy
But getting back to the original topic of why its desirable in new hire classes, I don't think very many people are basing that decisions on any kind of factual data (excluding the obvious picks for basing etc). It has nice looking glass displays, and to some (not all) that is an extremely important thing. So much so, that some would potentially lose out on a base they want more or perhaps faster relative seniority out of fear of the 88 or out of admiration for another plane that are both highly exaggerated.
Haha glass...that's funny. I actually had quite a bit of factual data going into my decision making process (as did quite a few min my class). We had access to deltanet the week prior to starting indoc, so I was able to pour over bid packets and get a good idea of the trip mix. I was able to pick the brain of 6 squadron mates who are delta guys and between them have flown all of my choices.
I lucked out and had a very high last four, so I had the choice of pretty much anything 7ER or below. I went with the 73 because I thought it was the quickest way to my base of choice...I was right. Also, it's only a few bucks less than the ER but has way better trips (bottom 50% of my base are doing little to no international). We're buying a lot of 737s and my seniority rise over the next year should be much better than in the ER. The downside is there are a decent amount of red eyes...something I'm fine with to have four leg, four days. The 88 was right out because, they are not based at my base of choice.