Due to the large size of the Excess Posting that was canceled, expect the company to come out with a much smaller version of an Excess Bid.
If they plan on doing it in 2 bids, one of them is going to be large. I don't think they plan on having anyone go to training until at least 30 days after the final excess bid, so the costs should be pretty much within whatever range that they've forecast internally. Their 'living training letter' idea pretty much allows them to manipulate the costs regardless of individual bid size.
I'm sorry but if I were in the bottom 200-400 pilots I'd be looking hard and heavy at a back up plan and expect to be on the street by the end of summer
Besides the fact that many of us seem to be in more of a rush to furlough ourselves than the company is, I don't think those numbers are realistic over that time frame. If the process started tomorrow and went off without a hitch, we're looking at the early-mid May for a training letter, and I'd guess that the first training dates will be more than 30 days later to allow them the flexibility to cancel awards if they want to for whatever reason. So we're likely looking at at sometime in June before training actually starts on this mess and you're thinking 200-400 out of here by the end of August? If they do a furlough, it's going to have to be a large one to make it worth it, but I think they'll dip there toes in the water and go relatively slowly to see if it's what they really want.
So what makes us any different? Nothing.
I agree with you there, we aren't above the fray.