BTW, according to the merger committee guy I talked to a few months ago the overall cost difference between 1.5x>80 and FDAL system was negligible. It's a matter of how the money was distributed.

Looking back at the MSP 320 category in January you could look at it this way.

1. Say you took the ALV cap off and did a 1.5x>80 and say that the ALV settled around 83 hours, i.e. 3 hours at 1.5x pay,
2. To go to an ALV of 83 hours you just need to MD off the aircraft 38 pilots off the A spot and 19 off the B position.
3. Assume every pilot was 12 years longevity ($168.12 for A's and $114.83 for B's in 2011 numbers), that'd be 80 hours at straight pay and 3 at 1.5, that's $14,206/mo for an A and $9,703 for a B.
4. Total cost under the current system with 288 A's and 258 B's is $12,104 and $8,841 respectively.
5. Total cost under current system with 57 more pilots is $5.767M. Total cost with an ALV at 83 and 1.5x>80, $5.872M.

You see where the cost is negligible with a 1.7% difference in cost but you get to MD off 57 pilots or 10% of the current 546 pilots.