Nice perspective Steve.
I was on a 1/2 full Mad Dog from ATL-IND last week and overheard the GA tell the dozen or so non-revs that they would all have to be seated in the back of the plane for W&B. Never saw that before on an MD.
Would that be due to a heavy fuel load on an empty plane? (weather was about to go to crap, so I imagine the captain wanted "another 10k pounds for mama")