I fully agree with PurpleToolBox and Adler in that we need to be better educated on how 117 could/will impact us. That discussion is a bit late to the table, but at least it's beginning. You can go here to submit questions and have them answered: FAR 117 Question Form | FDX MEC Hot Topics , only 2 Q's so far.

To me the bigger concern is the fact that the company sees the long term big picture, whereas we are concerned with the short term impact to our monthly schedule.

I suspect that given the time and capital spent by several all-cargo operators in Washington leading up to what became the Cargo Carve-Out from Part 117 (TonyC provided a detailed timeline and analysis in the Cargo thread), there are some big picture, long term concerns to operating under a 'lesser-tier' of safety. The two levels of safety, IMO, can really hurt us in the long term, much more so that the few pairings that would negatively impact our QOL under Part 117. Just my barely-educated opinion on the subject.