Originally Posted by
OhDoctor
I get that. I was hoping for more specifics on why that determination was made, although I guess no one here works for B6 and can really answer that for me. Essentially, it feels like the plane is waiting at SEA to turn around anyhow, so the question seemed to be about how long it was going to be idle. Could it be a crew timing issue?
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the plane is going anywhere else in the interim, which means the first two questions aren't mutually exclusive.
So to simplify:
Scenario A: 0900-1200, idle at SEA for 9 hours, turn around 2100-0530
Scenario B: 1600-2000, immediate turn around for the return.. but then idles at JFK for ~11 hours before going back west.
My inclination was that revenue J pax are more likely to be found on the earlier flight, instead of the awkward E-W 4pm departure. So am I wrong? Or is there a crew issue? Or something else entirely?
Very few planes stay on the same route for more than one turn. B6 has more than enough MINT planes to send the plane in scenario B to the Caribbean or even to another west coast city after the red-eye arrival. Possibilities are endless but B6 is not sending the same plane back and forth to the same origin and destinations. If you are interested, check the tail registration of any given commercial jet currently in service, and you can see it in works.