That's how other companies tend to do it, but they also tend to have a greater number of smaller excess bids to shuffle things around before they furlough-unless a wholesale junior fleet parking is involved.

That would seem more likely with our tendency towards 'one size fits all' bids. Remember we're dealing with lawyers and bean counters here. 23.A.1.a says that a pilot shall receive at least 30 days notice of furlough. It does not say that there cannot be a longer notice or that the furlough does in fact have to take place after those 30 days. In short this allows them to run an excess and 'furlough' a bunch people while manipulating the actual furlough dates(if any) based on the training letter, changes in the economy, or the fruits of any negotiations generated by the hysteria of such a move. Look at what US and UA are doing. They both announced big furloughs last year, but have been manipulating the actual dates/numbers since then. For reasons discussed by many, this still all may be a big-time bluff to legitimize the 4.A.2.b move, but in either case it probably helps to understand how they may go about it.