I'm working on it.. this is 4. I have a 9XXX social and shudder to think how low on the list I'll be. When do they think they will start training more 777 people?

No need to worry for you because Delta determines seniority by last 4 from HIGH to LOW. You will be in a nice position.

A is delta short hand for Captain. B is short hand for First Officer

They are talking about the movement overall in the company that this AE would create. A vacancy is created by someone bidding one of these new positions on this AE, backfilling is when someone else then can bid the position they left. If there is no backfilling - then the only movement you would see is what is shown on the AE, no secondary movement to 'backfill' the guys who moved up on the AE.

Did that make sense?

Thanks. So, what they leave behind would be filled by a later AE and/or with new hires?

Miller Time - thanks also!

keep in mind, sometimes they don't backfill because they want to shrink a category. You have to look at the staffing projection, which is published with every bid. If category X has 100 pilots currently, but the projected staffing shows it at 90 pilots, they can get to 90 one of two ways. First, they can actually post 10 displacements. Or second, if they know there will be a lot of movement they can just let 10 pilots bid off and not backfill their positions.

Right now, all the flying time for the new 73N categories in CVG and LAX is coming out of the ATL 73N time. So they will let a lot of pilots bid off the ATL 73N. But, as the 737-700s show up, that time will go into the ATL 73N category. So on this bid they will let the ATL 73N category shrink some, but subsequent bids will build it back up as the -700s start to arrive.

Edited to add:
to illustrate my point about staffing, as of the last bid, the ATL 73NA category was going to be staffed at 297 pilots. The forecast staffing that accompanied the current bid shows the ATL
73NA at 267 pilots. So, you can expect that up to 30 pilots can bid off the ATL73NA and not be backfilled.

Lax Info
 

I have a few questions about LAX...

1. Was M88 a category recently in LAX that is now being replaced now by the 73N?

2. If there was a M88 category that has been displaced wouldn't that mean that on the recent AE bid for 73N would mostly be filled by these displaced M88 guys?

3. I have heard that on reserve in LAX you have to cover 5 bases, is this true for all aircraft, or is it like NY that the M88 covers all 3 bases but the 7ER is only out of JFK?

No, there was not an 88 category in LAX. I think there was a 727 category, but that was years ago.

I would guess the 73N captains in LAX will come largely from current LAX 765 and 767 FOs. May be a few 73N captains from SLC that bid down to LAX.

Don't know what bases the 73N will cover from LAX, but I do know the 767 pilots cover a lot of airports. I would bet the 73N will cover multiple airports, just not sure which ones.

So to get ATL or LAX off the bat, flying intl. on the 757 / 767 is out of the question then? Oh, well, I am just happy to be onboard and look forward to start training and getting on line. I will get it soon enough with the movements you guys are forecasting..

Was that 25 of each category or 25 total displacements previously from the 765?

OK then including those already displaced, looks like no chance for a new hire to be able to bid 76ER or 767 LAX. Not quite like JFK just yet :)