The "sweet spot" is also a sticky spot. They don't want to be a lead-in airline, but they are having a hard time seeing how to afford offering a big enough incentive to prevent that. They can't take away services or add seats, because that would taint the product.

One option that I'm sure is on the drawing board is simply to accept being a lead-in airline, balancing the extra training costs with lower personnel costs provided by lower overall payscales, reduced-cost (to company) benefits, and more pilots on the junior end of the payscale due to turnover.

That might fuel a union bid, but the union is eventually going to happen one way or the other. Bringing in more junior pilots might stall it for a bit. This strategy could also play to a union leadership more to the company's liking - looking at short-term benefits vs. longer-term ones that are more expensive to the company.