Their bean counters definitely had a break-even point calculated and a number in their brains when it came to AML and ZTL's. It is definitely cheaper to furlough after a certain amount of time. The 522 ZTL's are there purely to absorb surge and training backups until they start calling people off furlough and I'm sure there was a cost/risk analysis done on that one. It's hard to understand without seeing a breakdown of how many people bid and what they bid for versus who got what they bid for. What I don't understand is that there were unconditional ZTL's given. Was there no one else underneath 1,605 that bid a ZTL? I bid one and I am under 1,605. Why were these given to people above the 2,500 line when they could have been given to more junior people? These questions can't be answered without knowing how many AML's and ZTL's were available in each bid status. Some people may have only bid these at one or two bases where other people bid the options at every base we have. Who knows if someone from LAX got a ZTL to BOS or PHL?

I believe the bennies cost the company somewhere around $2,500 per month per pilot. That's a lot of money for someone who isn't making the company money. Add that to the 20 hour incentive pay. How much does it cost them to recall and retrain a pilot?