Originally Posted by scambo1

Bill;

Overall, I agree with your analysis - except one part. IMO, you overrate the narrowbody left seat. Many/most int'l widebody FOs have been able to hold capt for a while.

The pilots who jump to the left seat at first opportunity are doing (what I call) an ego bid. The pilots who fly int'l long haul by choice look at pay/days worked.

The best it ever got with me was 8 days/month for 81 hours...I rode that for 2+ years. Contrast that with 12-17 days per month for 73 hours as a narrowbody A and you can see the difference. In all honesty, the 8 day month has largely dried up, 9-12 is now the norm, but it is still better than 12-17.

I am interested in seeing how this bid plays out too. Not necessarily with great anticipation, but more from a social engineering perspective. The A330 going to ATL, although not unexpected, is going to be interesting to watch mostly because that will be the Malaria jet.