abe44, As far as US Air not wanting to buy them you are correct, they would much rather have "joe's Airline" pay for them. As for the "hot little jets" I could give a rats ass! I'm concerned about having a job in 2 years, if all other companies are allowed to operate these aircraft, the wholly owned prop drivers are going to be walking the unemployment line, just as fast as our lines can be replaced. Our MEC is not allowed to negotiate with mainline management, we can only negotiate with our management. Our management is totally inept. They have absolutely no power over anything. They can't decide routes schedules , equipment not even the size of the fleet. All decisions concerning the 4 wholly owned companies of USAIR Group come directly from mainline management, because we are the same company. Now this is where it's just hilarious, especially if you don't have to live with it. If mainline management did negotiate with us it would open them up to a single carrier lawsuit. So the only way we can survive is if the mainline pilots give management scope relief on the current 70 RJ's with in addition to their protections, the caveat that they go to the wholly owned's. No there is not specific language in their contract prohibiting RJ's to us (there is language for anything over 68 seats) but by scoping us out of the RJ's their fellow USAIR group pilots and giving them out to the competition, they are killing us and the unions. Bottom line is the mainline MEC has the power via scope language to dictate to mangement who gets and how many RJ's are flying. If the mainline MEC allows the RJ's to contract carriers they will lose control over all their feeds. destroy us, fellow ALPA group pilots, and put their own jobs in jepardy from mainline management looking to outsource more and more flying to the lowest bidder