Originally Posted by
sleeves
I am not sure why you think the pre merger bids were bizarre. The company had a bunch of airplanes coming, only one pilot group that could fly them, and had to staff the planes. They could have staffed the planes with more pilots as is shown by all the SRM trips that were offered during that time.
The bizarre part was not that there were bids, but where they were located.
What time has shown ( which was obvious to any reasonable observer at the time) is that the bids were given out in the wrong place. Additionally, it was done at such a high level that it unfortunately gave rise to the conspiracy theories that have filled this and other forums.
The SRM levels we see are due to gross manpower errors, one of which is the problem of having pilots in the wrong location. That results in extremely inefficient use of pilots due to inefficient trips. This is good for us in the short term because it requires extra pilots and or a huge amount of Senior Manning, but is bad for us in the long term as it is painful to correct.
We are now in the painful part!!