Yup. Only if needed to prevent AS being aquired by someone else. There is no advantage doing so otherwise.

 

Well, that's the point. They only need to flex reserves up in the busy months. Reserves are still going to be flying half of guarantee or less in the shoulder months. It's just the nature of the way Delta schedules flights. By allowing them to flex up in the busy months, we have negatively impacted staffing. I'm just pulling numbers out of my head here, but 15 hrs a month more per pilot in a category that has, conservatively, 70 reserves (M88B ATL) equals 1050 pilot hours per month extra that can be flown with existing staffing. Even if you cut that number in half because of 30 in 7 or other issues, you still have the existing staffing model carrying a lot of extra weight in the busy months without ever getting close to the contractual triggers that mandate an increase in staffing. In effect, we've allowed them to staff categories based on demand in the busiest months versus demand in the slow months. This is a huge giveback. The union line that this change had to do with long international trips exceeding ALV and thus being unable to be assigned to reserves is laughable. I refuse to believe the company had that much heartburn with an issue that maybe effects 1% of the schedule on any given day. Really, how many 747 or 777 guys call in sick for a 12 day trip a day, on average? I'd like to know. My bet is nowhere near enough for it to remotely effect the operation due to reserve coverage issues. After all, if an 84 hour trip goes into open time, scheduling can always split it with minimal cost to the company. ALV + 15 was never about reserve coverage of long international trips. It was, and is, about giving the company the flexibility to reduce staffing by working the crap out of domestic narrowbody reserve pilots in the summertime. I don't see how you or anybody else can see it any differently.

 

Masturbatory ones are just screwing themselves!

 

I haven't watched "It's a Mad Mad World" in about 35 years. When I consider Netflixing it I remind myself of what I thought of "Little Big Man" after watching it recently--I remember liking it much better when I was a kid.

 

I wish we had kept reserve at 70 hours.

 

....................

 

Ok, any math geniuses out there? I bought 30 contracts with a 13 strike price of LCC in my DC plan for an average price of $1.53. That's like me holding 3000 shares of LCC at 14.53. In AH it went up to 14.90 but the market cap is going to go up by $700 Million by AM, I hope based on 162.47 million shares and a market cap of $2.38 billion. LCC's share is $3.080 billion. I think the opening price will be close to $19 per share?

 

Omnia mihi lingua graeca sunt

 

No, it's not the point of a few on this thread that insist in 24 months all reserves will be flying ALV + 15 every month while sitting 7 SCs. BTW, I see guys on NYC 7ER call in sick for long trips all the time. We have plenty of 6-12 day trips in the summer. Last summer the EWR-AMS-BOM-AMS-EWR trip was 6 days. Worth around 34 hours. I watched one guy do two of those back to back. Guys called in sick for it every month. Some are 9 day trips in between CVG-CDG or SLC-CDG or PIT-CDG. Some are Asia trips. Some are 7-9 day Africa trips that go JFK-ACC-ROB-ACC-ROB-ACC-JFK. Some trips are fabricated in order to rescue broken airplanes and provide extra segments due to MX cancellations. So if a guy is within 33 hours of 70 hours, he didn't have to take the AMS-BOM shuttle trip. And many reserve guys reached 37 hours quickly in the summer.

 

I think if we are forced buy someone it will be Hawaiian Air.