Nu, I would love to have the call in honest policy at NWA if it were contractual. I would not trade the current Delta contractual call in honest for a policy since it could go away at any time. NWA management was unwilling to make the policy contractual because they wanted to maintain control of that option.
As far as it saving NWA money I have no knowledge if it did or did not. As I have pointed out before however the way pilots commute at Delta is quite different then NWA. Pilots at NWA choose to commute to MSP or DTW almost from the day they are hired. Pilots commute to those bases from all over the country and tend not to dominate a city pair. A significant amount of Delta pilots are commuting because of having their bases closed. This creates a high volume of traffic on specific routes such as DFW-ATL. I don't see Delta ever bumping 40 paying passingers on one flight to get commuting pilots on the aircraft. In addition that would mean that no flight attendants could get on the aircraft going to their trips. You would have a inflight riot when they were being bumped by positive space pilots.
That last issue is would it save Delta money. I think the answer is not a dime. There is currently no real problem with pilots getting to work. Delta has very few flights canceled for a failure of a commuting pilot getting to work. NYC is perhaps the worst but the policy would not really help because when they have had to cancel flights in NYC its not because the commuters could not get seats its because the commuter flights could not get to NYC. If they aircraft can't get there it does not matter if you are positive space on that flight.
The last point is that if Delta does feel that giving positive space will save a flight from being canceled then they will give you positive space. They do it on a need and case by case basis. Trying to portray the NWA policy as something that would save Delta money simply wont fly. They will give you positive space if they need it.
As I mentioned as a commuter for life I would love to get positive space. Its ashame NW was never able to negotiate it as a contractual item. It would have been much easier to have added it to the joint contract.

Nu,

I understand management often feels obligated to do something for the other groups to keep, but that it a burden they must carry. Thankfully, they don't always do this. And thankfully, we don't ever negotiate under this sort of reasoning. If it were the case, we would share a contract with the F/A's, and just work on different sides of the cockpit door.

I'm all for pragmatic, rational negotiations, but never will I consider that my bargaining power is limited by future actions that management would take, on their own accord, with third parties. That's a little bit like trying to consider the fact the car dealership will not make a profit on my transaction, and worrying about whether we're setting a bad precedent with the next customer.

I think the difference is that NWA former staffing was on the lean side at best. So if guys didn't make it to work flights were canceled. Also if a pilot calls in unable to commute and aren't pay protected then lets just say the thought of being sick due to this may arise, not saying that doing this is right or wrong just that it happens......

Dude this 777B doesn't even want to touch them in the left seat

Trust me all employee groups generally have to sign on for new policies. They are working on a joint substance program and all the other groups have to be OK with it before we can implement it. It is the way DAL does business.

In many cases it leads to a lengthy process.

Wow I feel like Steve Martin when he found his name in the phone book. ACL liked my post! I'm somebody!!

Just to clear up some points, Msp was the major base when NW and REP merged; the majority of the former NW lived in Msp. With the merger came the bases of Dtw, Mem, Phx and Las. NW moved out of Phx and Las and pilots were displaced. Dtw has always been the highest commuter base.
DL is now moving people around and probably will for the next 2 years, DL will have a lot more commuters, the commuting patterns will change.
As NW32 said the former NW ran it on the lean side, right now we have an over abundance of pilots that will change, and hopfully its from growth. I belive all of the current bases are going to be rebalenced.
To say because we have the policy in the contract as it is, I'm not sure what we get from it...its still at the schedulers option.

The good thing is that we can solve all of the worlds problems on this board

Eh? Should I admit I am lost? :D

Another thing about the FA and a possible union. As large and fractious a group as they are, that would make them more vulnerable to a small group taking control and ramming through contract items beneficial to a few at the expense of the many. Does this make sense?