my guess
My guess is that the practice bid did not turn out the way the company and/or the union expected and it generated far more training cycles than they imagined and did not fill HKG still.
I think they are taking the time now to remove the guys/gals restricted from bidding due to seat locks, etc, and changing their policy about how old a guy can be before they train them, then remove them from the cycle and run the practice bid again.
Usually I think they do this at the end of all the bids I think. I am sure they can spit out a practice bid at a moments notice. There's got to be some policy/perspective adjustment going on. It's in the company's (and ours) best interest for this bid to go well, so I think they are going to tweak the bid and policy at the practice bid portion along the way.
This beats the heck out of waiting till after the bid, then slapping the cards out of our hands while simultaneously screaming "Misdeal! Misdeal!"
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So good on them.....I am still hoping to be wrong about my ability to stay in the seat I am in. I have never wanted to be more wrong before in my career. I hope to enjoy ridicule and finger wagging along with a few "nah nah nah nah nah nahhh"s.
For the record, I am following DW's advise about our collective future and appreciating the efforts of all of us in the crew force. I can tell you that I appreciate all the beneficial provisions of the contract that the previous and "elder" Fedex pilots negotiated for us as much or even more than I am sure the "elder" folks appreciated the strength and membership of the junior folks. We (with them) ratified the contract that got them their 25K Debit cards for Health Care, agency shop, and improved retiree benefits. Personally I was happy to do it. We had 97% membership thanks in no small measure to the almost 100% membership status in the junior blocks. If the financial health of the company depends on expansion in Asia, then it will be the Junior folks that man it with the current compensation package.....so you see, we all benefit from the efforts of each other.
The way I see it, we (Junior, Senior, in between) don't "owe" each other anything except to stand shoulder to shoulder. We have all played our parts. Such is the nature of collectivism.