Cool story. Personal anecdotes abound. The sad fact of the matter is that thousands of Delta pilots, at all seniority levels and in both seats have found themselves - through no fault or intentional choice of their own - in categories with 10% or fewer blue days of Reserve coverage…for half or more of the year. With infrequent and unpredictable AEs, it is a slow process to escape such a category, and there’s no guarantee escaping any given category will help someone escape an undermanned situation.