Well, that's exactly what they're planning on doing now. Remember Dan, we're talking about only one Captain and one FO per day doing the embedded reserve thing. Six Captain tfp and six FO tfp, per day, is their idea of the cost of insurance to avoid the nightmare of what would happen if they did have to hold a plane for up to half a day to deadhead a replacement in (or at least what it would do to OUR schedule, the way we keep our crews and planes busy). Who knows, maybe after a while if no one calls in sick they'll reduce or change that, but for now, they think that's an important, and apparently affordable, "insurance policy."
Obviously, with the timing of flying to and from Hawaii, using 'regular' days in my example is a simplification. Maybe they'd have to have an extra half-day of crew rest in there if you return on a red-eye, and some of that rig would subsidize this "insurance" cost. Like I said, all the details have yet to be worked out. But that's the simple version.
Bubba
