$181 for a round trip buddy pass from SAT-ATL??? Wow......

WRT training capacity, the training foot print is being reduced by almost a week for full blown training events. 777 guys now show up and take their ESV and then go right into the 200 modules. I heard it will also be like that on the 7ER soon and eventually all fleets. That will increase the amout of pilots then can pump through the training pipeline by about 25% which is pretty significant once the flood gates open up.

I did my part of my initial MD88 training out in Long Beach. I guess Flt Safety still has those sims up and running.

Yeah Bar where is the money shot?

Did all my sims MD88 B in LB back in 1991. We have leased sims all over the place when hiring 100 a month.

they have handled 100 a month before. I was in the Training Dept. back then.

Regarding Gate agents, Gate Latency, etc...

Last week I was in MSP. We had arrived about 35 min late from our inbound flight (no fueler until 10 min prior to pushback (on the first flight of the day-no less)).

It was snowing off and on in Minnie and about two minutes after we got to the jet the agent wants the dispatch release and wants to close the door. Well we were missing about 20 pax, and we had our full pre-flight stuff to do, so I said "Let's leave the door open until we're ready and maybe we can get some more folks on". Sure enough we got seven more passengers.

We didn't leave a minute later, the gate agent didn't get in trouble, and we got seven passengers to their destination. That strikes me as a common sense way to do it...

Actually, even before the merger. There was a very informative post on this subject on the ALPA forum. NW was 400-600 over before ANC, if I understand correctly. The SLI transcripts showed a lower number, maybe 250-350.

Before you N guys get upset about this, please understand that it's not a dig at you. We knew this during the SLI, and it seems that we advocated for the merger anyway. I imagine that our MEC felt it was an acceptable part of the bargain. They told us instead we would need to hire for the N side to come up to JCBA staffing. It's not something anyone talks about much, because it's no longer the time for it.

Makes sense to me. Will you guys truly find yourselves on the hot seat if you're not on time and the delay is placed in your lap? Our gate agents are pushy, but ultimately the door closes (and can be reopened) on the Captain's command. The delay might go on us, and I've gotten phone calls about it - but frankly, we're the only pieces of the puzzle that aren't all that expendable (at least not without substantial cost). I can handle a phone call from time to time if that gets a couple more passengers and/or jumpseaters on the airplane.

They were speaking of vacancies in this bid.