Come to think of it, the other day we noticed the new ACARS wouldn't block us out until all the cargo doors were closed even though the pax door was closed and brake was released. Has anyone else noticed that?

Yup, complete violation of our contract. The contract says after the main cabin door is closed and the parking break is released

Going back to the old Pinch a nickel days?

Yeah, I happened to run into one of the CA rep's the other day and he said this exact thing. Why it wasn't communicated by the company to be that way, boggles my mind. We get memo's about dumb stuff all the time, but something that actually has an operational impact, nah, lets not tell them.

Had that happen multiple times last trip, probably for a grand total of 30 minutes on the whole trip. It never closes before the main cabin door on any ramp, and if I recall it resets your out time if they open it to throw ballast in too right?

I haven't paid too much attention to this, but I had it happen to me and got the correct time. We closed the door and released the brake and left it released. At this point acars won't show an out time, but when they close the cargo door it went back in time and showed the MCD closed time. This was the only time I've paid attention and noticed this so YMMV. It was on a -200. Also if you've already shown a block out, adding ballast won't reset the time.

ATL 977 departures for the month? If so that's an increase from 220 y-o-y.

This will work until either the rear cargo door or any forward door is open. Ultimately, from what I've plug and played, we still have 98% control of our total block time. Since no one does the the BLoCK IN per the FOM anyway (a manner in which we would lose money every time), just leaving the left engine running would preclude the aft cargo door from being opened. Just saying 😀

Flow then I'll comply and wear the hat 😀😀

Who is this nut job? Is he one of us? Cheese and rice.