And yet if they all worked together, in unity, to not pick up every second of open time the premium would flow like water. And perhaps if they worked together, in unity, to not pick up that premium in 0.02 seconds the payout for that premium would go higher. Other surprising benefits may begin to show up beyond that. It sounds impossible at this point but that’s exactly how it used to happen just two years ago. People used to drop their schedules and just wait. It was a glorious time where by working together everybody made their own lives better.

It was a stroke of luck that looks like a genius move by management. Stop premium for a few months. It changed the game and pilots became pitted against each other fairly quickly. As a pilot group we’ve yet to go back to the old ways. We are stuck in a cycle against ourselves.