As with every thing. DAL probably has run the numbers and the cost of this policy is more expensive than what we are doing now. They almost never cancel a flight because of a commuter not showing up. A lot of guys live near our bases and have WS and GS in. IF there is not a reserve avail, they call one of these guys up for a turn. Works out real well for them.

This notion may change as guys like me who have blanked out and back white slips or green slips in are commuters, fly my sked and go home. They may also just up the SC reserves by a few a day.

As I see it, for some reason our guys on both sides of the fence see commuting about responsibility and honesty. If you do it, be responsible, and if you can make it be honest. I see the resistance of going to your old policy because they "may" see it as taking the responsibility out of it. Just a guess and I could be way wrong.

Also, when you look at former bases like MCO and DFW, the amount of commuters sends shivers down the spines of managers contemplating this policy. They look at this and figure that 95% of the tickets issued would be bumping revenue out of these two cities.
DFW still has 400-500 pilots and a ton of FA's. One gate agent told me that 3000 or so ppl still commute out of there. See we have mechanics, gate agents, rampers, et al that still commute from there. Heck even a VP or two does it. Most of the FA's, Mechanics etc are way senior to the pilots so they see this as a way for them to PSY all of the pilots from cities like this.

One more note, marketing will not stick more seats in a market for commuters. I have asked ppl why they don't and the simple answer is we do not have the lift nor the money to burn like that.