There are still some issues with Delta's system that allow for auto rebooking of pax that miscon...I have seen many flights where there were "miscons" rebooked for the next morning, yet many of these pax actually made it to their flight for one reason or another (or were re-routed) and when that happens, the new booking for the next day does not cancel. It's a hard game to play...I am getting tired of it also...just have to get creative and find connections sometimes instead of non stops..:(

"you never even called me by my name."

Thanks alot, got that damned song stuck in my head now. :eek:

So 360ish vacancies and 180ish surplusses. As I recall, the last bid had about as many excess vacancies as we hired/recalled. So does this mean at least 180 more new hires/recalls?

Latest AE
 

For pilots going to training as a result of this latest AE, DAL has released this video involving "best practices" for the sim:

YouTube - Pilot Comedy in a Simulator

Delta Commercials
 

The new Delta Commercials are out on DLnet. Not bad!!! Follow the link for "Keep Climbing"

If its hot out the two cooling units will NOT be fighting each other - even if they both have thermostats. If the temp settings on the thermostats are turned down there is a very good chance that the cabin temp will never get to the thermostat set temperature - which means that both systems will be working at full cold. Give it a try sometime - with ground air hooked up, turn on the APU air and turn down the pack temps - then watch the pack valve positions. I bet that they don't move off of full cold. On the 88, ground air + APU air is a good thing!

If you think about it there are really THREE cooling systems in play - ground air plus TWO packs. Each with its own thermostat. We don't turn off one pack to keep the packs from fighting each other do we?

Oh, and if the pack valves do move off of full cold then put them into manual.

The only thing that you would need to worry about is the ground air putting out warm air - for that to happen, the air around the jetway thermostat has get get colder then the set temperature - not very likely this time of year!

Your points are well taken, but I was talking about poor ground units that put out hot air on warm days. Beyond that, I was thinking about the two units fighting each other on cold days, but that's not all that important.

Keep in mind there also could be several issues with external air. If the unit can't cool air enough, it's of little use. If it won't control to right temp because of a bad rheostat, it will gradually pump out warmer air to fight the APU, no matter what the mix valves might say. Or, if it's simply a kinked hose, it can't help at all.

I do agree that a fully functional ground unit could theoretically be used in conjunction with the APU on a hot day, but I thought the problem on the Maddog was a poor APU. If you have good external air, you don't really need the APU. If you don't have good air (i.e. it's too warm), then get rid of it and let the APU do the cooling.

I flew the 737-200, the -800, the 88, and the 75/76 at Delta, and haven't yet found one where you couldn't take care of business with either good (cold) external air, or a functioning APU. I did see plenty of people fighting themselves by insisting on running recircs on the 800, however. And various degrees of marginal results running both external air and the APU.

Can't remember about the 320 but on the 330 there is a limitation that says you cannot operate the packs and external air at the same time. Also, most times it is not that easy to get external air disconnected unles you do it yourself.

Are those really even surpluses since they are just converting SLC767 to SLC7ER? Seems like it'd just be a wash, & we'd have well over 200 unfilled positions.

May I add my 2 cents? As a former SO LCA on the old 727, we highly discouraged the SO to not run the packs while hooked up to ground power. The obvious reason was that if power dropped, the pack fans would turn off with an instantaneous dual pack overheat and corresponding smoke in the cabin. It's been awhile since I flew the 88 and 90 so I can't remember if it has a similar dilema but it seems like it did. So if you are running the APU and packs on the ground, make sure you are on APU power and not ground power.