Timbo....good synopsis and to add, it was a 17 YEAR B-scale at AA. Ouch.

Boatbuilder....the RJ flying was a double edged sword. Delta was about 80% military hiring in that era. There is no way in h*ll any military pilot would have applied to Delta and been behind ALL the newly minted 24 year old "Delta" pilots being stapled to the bottom of the list. Where was the money(negotiating capital) going to be paid from to bring all these new in house RJ pilot salary/benefits up to Delta pilot standard? It was going to come at somebody else's expense(current Delta pilots). Additionally, seems like the most b*thched about QOL flying is the "RJ-style" of flying . I'm not defending what happened, just trying to add perspective of what transpired 40 years ago without the insight of Monday morning quarterbacking.

I believe, there weren't any limits on Delta having the capacity to have "subsidiaries" fly Delta pax for connections to Delta metal. Sailingfun could probably add more insight. Therefore, it would have required a lot of negotiating capital to negotiate limits on the RJ's. I believe Timbo was in the small minority of young civilian pilots and views this from that perspective. I am not so sure that represents the vast majority of Delta pilots waaay back then. (Just my perspective as a 32 yo ex-military pilot being hired at Delta)