The IPA announcement said: The Company confirmed that no overall headcount reduction or furlough would take place as part of the coming bid.

This means that the number of vacancies in the Realignment Vacancy Bid will be equal to or greater than the number of realigned positions (which are the potential Displacements).

For example, in the Realignment Vacancy Bid, assume there are 40 CPT and 40 FO vacancies, 10 of each to the 747, and 30 of each to the lower 48 (L48). The bid also announces that there are 40 CPT and 40 FO positions to be realigned from the DC8. That scenario would result in no overall headcount reduction.

For demonstration sake, assume the bid award results in all 80 positions being filled. Also assume only 5 of those positions were filled by DC8 front seaters, and the 10 747 FO positions were filled by junior DC8 FE's. That would leave 75 DC8 front seaters to be displaced in the follow-on Displacement Bid. Those pilots would bump junior L48 pilots, who would bump junior ANC pilots, and the bottom 75 in ANC would be bumped to the most junior position, DC8 FE.

A lot better option, and one we are hoping for, is for the number of total vacancies to be significantly greater than the number of realigned positions.