There are lines built with back end DH to MEM that arrive at midnight on Saturday night to DH back to the same place on SUN afternoon. This is operationally stupid but 4a is driving them to disappear every possible minute from the bidpacks. They are counting on people to use hotel in lieu to save themselves hassle. Anyone who does that is begging for every weekend layover to turn into a similar construction in the future. Guess what? Those aren't disputed pairings - they're in the lines.

You have missed the point entirely. The point is that the decision to furlough is not 4a2c driven. If they want to furlough they will and all 4a does is cause them to butcher everyone's QOL to do so. 4a doesn't protect anyone from furlough unless there's only an EXTREMELY marginal case to furlough. If the case to furlough is extremely marginal then they're unlikely to do so anyway.

In the meantime, 4a incentivizes the company to destroy EVERYONE's QOL and W2 just to keep their furlough options open.