Because if you are a CAL pilot and you get a relative seniority merger (i.e. same percentage of list pre vs post merger) then you get to be the same percentage on an airline with a much higher ratio of widebody aircraft to narrowbody jets.

So if you are fenced off them, that's not "fair" because you WANT to be able to fly those big jets, that you don't have the opportunity to right now, and those guys who have been waiting to fly those big airplanes at UAL, it isn't "fair" that they have that chance and not you.

So anything more than a 5 year fence "wouldn't be fair".

So either there has to be a major fence or ratio that always gets maintained between the two groups so that sUAL pilots still have the same ratio of widebody jobs they have access to today, OR the seniority list needs to be put together in a way that makes that happen without a fence.

So if today there are 3,000 UAL pilots flying Cap and FO on widebody aircraft, and 1,000 CAL doing the same, then in 15 years, that ratio should still exist.