Originally Posted by
SVCTA
After reading a dozen or so pages of this it I reminded of my prior sentiment in a different thread: DL is worshiping profit that doesn't care about DL in return. We need schedulers and reserve pilots to staff uncovered flying, not an increasingly complicated staffing decision tree that attempts to make more money with fewer resources. I am all for premium flying being available to this pilot group, but the frenetic state of scheduling whack-a-mole has shown that the depth of the pool is over our heads (sorry for the mixed metaphor). It's time we migrate back toward the shallow end.
As a number of posters have pointed out, everyone has been focusing on the problems in the trip coverage, without realizing that the sheer volume of open time is unsustainable and indicative of a completely different set of problems, including staffing and trip construction, both of which are completely within the company's control.
If you don't have a lot of open time, the trip coverage problems are moot, because the system works just fine at lower volumes. When you try to put 20lbs of stuff in a 5 lb sack is where there's a problem.