Originally Posted by
AerisArmis
Really, so if you can hold widebody captain and you are any age, you can go to training without a bid and subvert the sacred seniority system? I'll bet even Foxhuter would agree that they will have to "bid what they want to fly" and then be trained in seniority order. Remember, if/when this thing changes, they are just part of the seniority list, no different, no special favors. If Big Wave Dave Webb wants to "request to return to the line" in an expedious manner, all he has to do is to start stacking his over 60 buddies on top of the line holders without a bid. Any recall effort would gain traction, including my support.
You lose the bet!
When a managment pilot, LCA, Flex, LOA, MLOA, regained medical individual return they can bump into any position their sysem seniority can hold. While it is not really addressed in the contract it has been an accepted past practice.
There is also the possibility that the change will happen before this next bid. It looks like perfect timing for the company since an excess on the DC10 is coming in the near future they can fill a large number of Captain slots with the excess S/Os that want to return to the Captain seat. The company has one training cycle for each Captain/FO position filled in this manner verse the the multi training cycles generated by the domino effect of filling one Captain slot in more normal times. There is also nothing that I see that says that the company cannot award the Captain slot to any over age 60 S/O until the rule changes. The company just cannot use them in revenue service until the change is in effect. All training up to IOE could be done prior to the change.
In any case I see management sitting back and watching FDX ALPA falling apart from within with a certain sense of amusement.
