Kirkpatrick,
You are a SURVIVOR, and I'm predicting that you'll return to work again in 09.
Some of those 73 recalls in front of you will "pack it in", via retirements, or not wanting to commute BACK(again) to NY, plus any deaths/firings/retirements within the whole system,...plus this being march..and the busy summer season just around the corner.
Heck, just on the seasonal DFW/ANC alone, that must take a fair amount of F/A's to crew that 757 , 7 days a week, and there is a new DFW/LHR coming on line soon.
Bottom line, they will never get to you "Permanently"(cause you're a New Yorker, and THAT equals ...SURVIVOR) !!!
Nice sentiments, NHBB. However, not only is there not much chance that he will be recalled in '09 if furloughed, there is a better than even chance that I will join him on the unemployment line, and I am over 900 from the bottom of the active list. The overage is much worse than the company is addressing at the moment.
Since they found out that they don't have to give 60-day notice if the overage is less than 500 (or 90-day if less than 250 in New York state), they are going to parcel out the furloughs over time. Legally, they could announce another 499 today to take effect 01JUN and it would be considered a different set of folks from the current 410.
Why do I say the overage is worse than announced? Here are some figures to consider. I don't have all the numbers here at home, but let's look at the largest and one of the smallest bases. DFW domestic paid out over 6000 guarantee hours in January alone. SLT with only 367 active f/as paid out over 1300 guarantee hours.
Guarantee hours are hours guaranteed to a f/a, but not flown--such as, reserves or availability f/as who are not given enough flying to cover their guarantees. January is not unique. I was on reserve in December and February. In December--which is historically known as the month we run out of reserves and line people get reassigned--I had 40 hours and 27 minutes, and 10 hours of that was sitting airport standby. I only actually flew a little over 30 hours. In February, I finished the month with 47 hours, but 5 hours was airport standby and 4 hours 10 minutes was special assignment. The only reason I had 37 hours of flying was I put myself on short call one day and managed to pick up a 19 hour, 3-day trip on a day I was #17 of 24 available reserves.
According to a DFW domestic f/a I was talking to while commuting home one night, the DFW reserves in February flew approx. 35 hours each. Each one of them was guaranteed 75 hours; so, approx. 40 hours of guarantee hours for each reserve--approx. 300 f/as each month.
Something has to give somewhere.