I'm amazed that someone who has made it to the left seat in turbojet 121 ops has such an uninformed and distorted view of the seniority system and career expectations. DOH is the magic number dude, not the time spent on furlough. Did you just post the above to inflame or are you really that obtuse?

IOW, if you got hired at UAL while young and then got furloughed, chances are you'll still retire in the left seat of the biggest plane United flies, not the guppy. It's just that simple. And with retirements just around the corner, the ride up will be fairly swift. Certainly the furlough will suck and this "merger of equals" will set you back, but the remainder of the career is filled with potential. To imply that a furloughee of the worlds largest airline has no career expectation is just bull.

"Basic 101 stuff" indeed.