As of now:

Pref Senior to SSN 61XX

95 with 54 as first choice.

Good. Let them have it. The more senior the better. Opens up seats on better equipment for us junior folk.

Yeah, I think "the whole summer off if you bid the 717!!!" is a sales job. Especially the 88 crowd that can be trained quickly.

Hope I'm wrong.

When is the first airplane scheduled to show up? If they are training crews starting in a month or two, some will get the summer off. Granted it is a 365 day bid, so you may not go to training for a year after the award.

I agree with you. The company is desperately trying to bribe people to bid B717. I'm hoping over 75% of the B717A and B717B positions are filled via MD.

Some guys will get the summer off, but it won't be as widespread as is being hoped for. Still, I'm glad there are pilots who want to bid and fly the up, down, up, down domestic equipment, especially the more senior guys. Why? Because it invalidates the arguement regularly posed by DALPA that "you don't really want to fly that."

Did a little research with the assistance of my trusty dispatcher. The proposed JFK-HKG will be a 777 flight. The 744 doesn't have the lung capacity. The only question is will it be ATL getting the positive space commutes or DTW? Of course this is only mentioned out of my own personal best interest.:D

I only recently really looked at/analysed the AE. Of course, the results will be the most telling, but IF this AE is the end of the bad news, we are gonna need some bodies. Boomer better get that resume' polished up.

I think it was originally supposed to come in August and enter service in September. The real issue is IOE.

Good post.

Let me clarify, I think there will be people who convert in April. I really believe they will do it. But everyone who reads that CR newsletter the thought is they'll get the summer off, they assume they'll be senior. I hope I'm wrong but I just dont think itll be that many. you know they don't need 290 pilots for 3 planes in September, but they'll need every 88 pilot beyond the few token early converts for the summer.

Like I said, I hope I'm wrong. If right, I'm going to stop paying attention to these CR newsletters and various emails. I'd rather be a uninformed pilot than a misinformed one.

There will be a lot of time off for the next several years on the 717. The volume of training will see a lot of training drops.