I'm not against merit-based upgrades (In fact, I support it assuming it's based solely on performance), but street captains do hinder our career progression as FOs. For every street captain on property, there's one less seat to upgrade into in the future. That needs to go away, and thankfully it looks like it will with the new contract.

And before anyone thinks I'm an FO who's simply bitter about having been passed up, I'm not; I'm not yet eligible based on my time with the company. I simply see upgrade getting further and further away with each street captain who shows up to class. I don't hold any ill will toward those captains, but it's a serious issue for FOs like myself.

One thing I want to say is this: Every other non-sked charter airline has seniority-based upgrades, and they have just as good a safety record as Omni does. I say put the responsibility on the individual pilot to determine whether he or she is ready to bid for the left seat. If they fail, it's on them. They can go back to the right seat for a while and try again in the future. I think that's more than fair.