Having "Flexibility" is GREAT. What we should ALL want.. both the company/management and the (union) pilots.

As others have posted (besides myself), COLA's while massive hiring?
Having to pay (yourself) for numerous items WHILE losing out on some seniority issues?

Ask yourself this- (And it will take a little work)
Come January 10th, in the BES's that had COLA's offered-
How many took it?
Then, will those same BES's be showing "red" on staffing levels each and every day in FEB.

A COLA is 100% the company trying to figure out a way to save money. Fine with that!
But allowing pilots to drop a week of reserve (and subsequent loss of pay) or having a line holder drop a trip (again) with loss of pay.. would still net the company a savings. Problem is, it's not the FULL savings they want AND it also helps those individual pilots Quality of Life.
Our contract ALSO allows for SRL's. Why not offer that? Again- why pay 50 hrs when you can pay zero?!
Not sure why anyone now (in those BES's offered) would accept a COLA and not just turn around and bid reserve. Yes, Reserve sucks (more if you're a commuter) BUT.. if the company is publically stating they are overmanned on certain BES's.. sounds like a great way to get 73hr of Pay, and at least 6 days off in a row, not to mention another 6 days off and THEN the other 18days where you probably won't get used (least not every single day)

If you feel that my post is "a negative comment", so be it. Just pointing out some facts. I wouldn't expect the company to post this. But I would have hoped the Union would- and they haven't.
We probably have about 11K "active" Pilots. Then, after you take away the Capt positions (not offered except GUM), down to 5k(ish).. take away anyone not offered, down to 4K(ish).. take away anyone with a conflict (ie, vacation.. training, etc) and we are probably looking at 2-3K.
I'll beat less than 50 takers..

How many would have taken a SRL for a month... probably double that? But.. the company savings would have been a lot less.

That's the message some of our posts have been about. Nothing "negative", just more of the full story.
Guess we will know the numbers by tomorrow.. and the new "G Line" by Tuesday.

Always
Motch

PS) I believe Feb and Oct are our lowest months. This does set a trend that they will offer COLA's on those months vs. SRL's. THAT is the trend we need to look at, and (hopefully) prevent.
Reason SRL's are in the contract is to prevent the company from "scaring" the pilots with a potential furlough WHILE making sure that we are not looked at as seasonal employees.
Just my opinion~