It's probably not as good as it looks at first glance, but it might not be as bad as you think.

Let's say all 10 747 captains bump down to DTW 777 and 330 positions. Doesn't that increase the amount of 777 and 330 captains to be awarded in NYC and ATL?

The whole "Vacancies Contingent on not Backfilling" thing is confusing. But, it seems like it's much better than them saying they aren't backfilling at all.

Of course, all of this is based on me understanding on what they are saying. And that never happens. :)

Why an equal of NYC 330A's and B's. Shouldn't it be 1-2?:mad:

Training capacity, they actually want 50 crews by summer in NYC and around 100 in another year. Only so much sim time available. Cheaper to DH FO's around then CA's.

Well I was kind of excited and feeling good about this AE until I read this:

"Our projection is at least 50 SEA crews (50 Captains and 50 F/Os) by the end of 2015. There are 15 SEA-73N Captain and 15 SEA-73N First Officer positions contingent on CVG and SLC pilots bidding out."

Hmm... That tells me that possibly 15% reduction in SLC staffing to fund SEA... what a bummer. That would wipe out ALL the gains I was predicted to make in SLC for the next couple years, plus the single guy I've moved up in the last 3 years. Shrinking the SLC cat will make my bidding power effectively decrease significantly. How this is all reconciled with the 35 posted and unfilled SLC 73NB positions for "new guys" I don't know... I suspect it shows that the projected "growth" in SLC was totally illusory and doesn't exist, as they are NOW trying to shrink SLC (and/or CVG, looks like they don't care which) by up to 15%.

Every time some advancement or good seniority news happens, I only have to wait a month or two to get slapped in the face again with more backwards sliding. We'll see what happens on this AE, but the Network desire to shrink SLC 73 by up to 15 guys (15%) doesn't bode well.

Feb CQ training is backdoor-able.

Kinda what I thought. The 15 positions are split between SLC and CVG. I would imagine most of the CVG guys who are left will stay until they boot them out so most of those 15 will be from SLC.

Are there really 35 unfilled positions on the 73N from the last couple bids?

So 132 positions on this AE are "contingent". This seems to be a new technique that I haven't seen before. Has anyone else seen a "contingent" bid before?

I'm assuming that the issue is the training pipeline. I.e., have a DTW-777A bid ATL-777A to "right size" the base. If they don't bid out of DTW, we'll just deadhead them...but we really don't want more training events. Am I reading this right?

It seems training has finally become an issue. If the company truly wanted to "right-size" each base then they'd simply displace as they've done in the past.

Yeah, that is the way I take it. They need to displace to right size some categories but they don't want guys having bumping rights via displacements, potential moving costs, and guys without freezes. With all the movement they will just not award some vacancies until some guys bid out of some positions.

Elvis good to have you back.

My opinion only, but I think crew resources uses pilot AE desires, prior to a bid, to model the possibilities of bid management. What I mean is that some guys have a standing bid, and crew resources models using that (IMO bad information).

Stated another way, and this is how I see it shaking out, look at the Dtw 747 and Dtw 777 categories. Neither is deltas sweetheart fleet. If dal wants to close both categories and minimize training, they use standing bid data. If the crews want to trick the system, 747 pilots should all have a standing displacement bid for the 777 Dtw and Dtw 777 pilots should all have a standing displacement preference for Dtw 747.

That scenario would IMO, cause some serious consternation and hand ringing in crew resources.

I hope that was clear.

Heyas scambo, I think life in crew resources will be difficult at best with all of the coming changes over the next 10 years. Maybe they'll need to hire some additional analysts. Consternation!

Could this be bargaining power?