I think my difficulty with pay banding is that it really puts the cart (pay) before the horse (scope). Without ironclad (adequate) scope, I think pay banding is a bad idea. With ironclad scope (Delta seniority list pilots fly delta passengers. period) I think it is not so bad an idea and workable, but also not perfectly optimal.

That said, merger, fragmentation, acquisition language would have to be updated in a similarly ironclad way.

In our seniority based world, it will always be worse to be junior than to be senior. Pay banding doesn't necessarily lower the ladder down to the junior any more than productivity pay pulls the ladder up. All it does is encourage the senior to fly the type of trips/aircraft they prefer to fly and the junior get what's left.

That's my brief take on the whole thing.