Originally Posted by Buck Rogers

Let me give you a hypothetical. A pilot , on probation, misreads their schedule, and no shows a trip. The company, understanding this is a possibility, still elected to not offer VAS, and thus are choosing to rely on a SC pilot physically being more available than is required, and that the SC pilot chooses your definition of promptly available. The SC pilot, who is at the airport because they are a commuter, gets notified of the trip coverage and time ie "now". But , because the SC pilot(having the PWA to back them up) takes 2+ hours to get there because...."they can". During the ensuing 2 hours, the FA's time out...so FA scheduling calls out reserves. By the time the reserve FA's gets there, the other pilot(s) time out. End result, the flight cancels. Delta, is on the hook for "stuff"( hotels/meals/vouchers). The said original "no show pilot on probation" is in a heapum amount of trouble, exacerbated by the shizerstorm of bad press and costs. All because the company chose to not utilize all of their tools to cover this possible problem and there wasn’t a SC pilot able/willing to be at the aircraft in the time required to prevent the snowball from rolling.

My definition of promptly available(which I think you meant) means ASAP.....not ....."taking as long as possible" because, "you can, per the PWA". That has been the main point of most posters.....Take all 2 hours even if you don't need to/want to.