How is it that every month I move up 20-30 numbers and see posters of 330/7ER Retirees plastered all over the lounges and then an AE comes out with nothing but 717 and 88 openings??? Are 717 FOs secretly retiring across the board? What am I missing? (Sarcasm intended)

Negative. PW is a PCS (i.e., automated) White Slip award (as opposed to W, a same/next-day WS award handled by CS).

Trip trades don't show up in Daily Coverage, since they don't really pass through Open Time. If you look at a specific rotation history, trades are indicated by PSB ("Pilot Swap Board," I assume?)....

The 71Bs were never hired.

Close. Pilot to pilot swaps/pickups don't show up, swap with the pot is a PS.

The Help key (PF5) will bring up all of the coverage codes in iCrew.

You're not the only one. I'd say that at least half of the retirement announcements that I see are heavy captains (747, 777, 767-400, A-330) and as you mentioned, the AE's don't seem like they reflect those retirements.

If I had to guess, the company is trying to get the Intl categories lean prior to the 747 boys getting flushed down. Imo, the lack of widebody jobs here at Delta should only encourage us a pilot group to not only exceed the rates of the UPS TA, but also to strongly consider pay banding.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there really a need for an AE to list captain spots being vacated by retiring pilots? The vacated slots will still be filled during the AE award process (unless they shrink a category and don't backfill). You'd only need A slots if you're growing a category. There's no need for the company to award WB A slots to new hires, so there's no need to list on an AE. What am I missing?

I see your point Ted. How is your example different than a bunch of 88B's bidding to different equipment? In other words, the 88 category isn't growing, guys are just moving on. So why not just backfill those positions?

Perhaps many of us don't fully understand the AE process.

If a WB captain retires and they want to fill that spot, they have to post it on the AE.

I think come September there will be another AE out with 747 displacements, and 777 openings, maybe some A350 positions as well. I wouldn't get too spooled up over this one little AE.

Oh, and they are probably going to be cutting back some of the international routes for the winter like they always do, thus they don't need to replace all the retiring wide body pilots until next spring, which will be covered in a winter AE.