I heard that they may close the MSP DC9 base before MEM now. This actually makes more since considering 75% of the MSP patterns have you deadhead to MEM or ATL on the first leg.

It may be an insignificant or minor point, but does anyone know how the company gets away with recurrent training making a Domestic 767 pilot shoot approaches into Bejing? A friend of mine is going to recurrent next week, and he says that is part of the curriculum. They of course have to get out the China Meters conversion chart to complete the evolution. ATL Domestic guys don't fly to China or need a Chinese Visa, so why are they required to perform International category items such as this? Sounds to me like the training department is trying to sharp shoot the system here.

DAL is only covering one passport for everyone now. When the 2 year passport expires, its back to one single passport.

How have int'l folks been dealing with that? My 2nd passport croaks in about 3 months.

Go to "Crew Scheduling & Resources" page on DelaNet and click on the "Crew Resources Monthly Update November 2011" to see what they are saying about the AE. It is very clear about the 9's, but somewhat vague about 76 Dom category in ATL. CPO in ATL says that 76 Dom in ATL will take a hit on this AE with time going to several different categories. :(

If you're quoting the info from the Northeast chief pilot newsletter, it was retracted....

I just renewed my 2nd passport/Russian Visa last month, same way as always (direct bill to Delta through CIBT)... only catch is the Russian visa is done online now instead of filling out a form (PITA).

I used the service that Delta pays for. I had to get a new passport and Chinese visa, it was less than a week from start to finish. There are Fedex mailers in the Chief pilot's office. Read the forms carefully as you download and fill them out, make sure they are complete.

I was a bit surprised when I went through CQ this year and saw that. I'm an ER guy so no big deal (although I thought that SPOT was a bit convoluted and promoted some bad ideas, (going direct a fix without instruction because I'm supposed to "expect it"?)

Anyway - I think it's more about having one CQ lesson plan for all the B757/B767 crews than about sneaking something in.

That's good to hear, for now. Trust but verify though. And mostly verify. Actually all verify.

And its great that "no scope concessions" is an approved talking point. But that's not going to cut it. No scope concessions means scope status quo. Alaska growing at twice the rate we are shrinking and us giving them twice the pax they give us, DCI flossing and flying over 250 DC-9-10 replacement jets all over the place and us trying to figure out how we will split all our international seat miles with every airline in the world including future start ups that don't even exist yet.

Of course there won't be any scope concessions. That's like being on the verge of D day and our generals saying they won't give away any "more" territory. OK, great, of course that's a given. But is it a priority to get back and do we have a strategy to get it back, or will our brightest days ahead still find us outsourcing half our airline to the lowest bidder? (and how bright will those days sustainably be if we outsource half our airline)?

And SWA+ is more than enough...depending on how big the "+" is. :)

In any case, trust but verify. We need to keep track of the meet and confers. With DCI and whoever else requires them.

I just had my 2 year passport renewed and all went well. Waiting for the Russian visa right now. Nothing I heard about not supporting two passports from Delta.

So how would Frontier fit in with our network? Good buy option? Or will SWA swoop in again and offer to buy?