Originally Posted by Verdell

A friend of mine attended the meeting.

Some key (subjective and opinion-based) takeaways:

1) The core purpose of the meeting was made very clear. What we call open time, FLOPS calls "demand." Demand has spiked since November and held high ever since. The reason for this is data-based increase in sick call usage, particularly on weekends. The reason for this increase was VERY strongly implied as sick leave abuse. It's supposed to be on all of us to help stop it.

2) The shotgun approach to the sick letters may have been off target, but something HAD to be done.

3) The moratorium on PB day usage was clearly due to the monetary cost. As in, washing payback days was costing too much money. It wasn't (or if it was, it was an afterthought) about operational reliability, despite what the FLOPS messaging stated.

4) They acted unaware, or at least less-than aware of the impacts pre-posted rest was causing disruption and inefficiencies for RES pilots.

5) PB days being converted to vacation isn't a big deal because they can plan ahead for it.

EDIT: Friend said there were probably 130+ pilots in attendance. 2 free beers each and yummy BBQ food. Lots more was talked about so the above is not nearly an exhaustive list. Lots of encouraging IT upgrades promised to be happening behind the scenes, for example.