Goodness gracious! I'm sincerely happy your suffering is over. Now start looking up to the "big boys" (and not down to regionals and bankrupt cargo outfits) as C2015 approaches.
You do know those upgrades and upward movement will slow down drastically pretty soon, right? The half-way point in scheduled aircraft deliveries is approaching fast. In a perfect world, aircraft deliveries are not deferred and scheduled returns are not anticipated (our A319's are going away). Very little attrition here, young workforce. If you got hired recently, chances are you'll be a bottom-of-the-list-captain for a long, long time. And you might have to commute to whatever base you can hold. Speaking of captains, have you looked at the captain pay scale? Compare it with other A320 operators (which, by the way, carry less pax onboard). I'm an 8th-year captain making $20 per hour less than JetBlue 4th-year captains upgrading this year, and their negotiations for their first ALPA contract are starting soon. Look at Delta's pay scale. You see what I mean?
Let's aim very high in 2015...ESOP, profit sharing, industry-leading pay scale, no PBS, much better retirement plan, redeye overrides, international overrides, etc. What we have now PLUS way more. Don't let the current negotiators, that believe in distributive negotiations, fool you with the flawed "the pie is so big" concept. They've already begun saying that at the "crew room get-togethers". This is NOT a zero-sum game, its a win-win/win-lose. Our CEO is an expert in game theory as it applies to business. Do our negotiators even know what that is? Sadly, we let many things slip away in 2010 when we had the company by the balls during the strike. The union fear-mongered and scared the group into voting-in the first TA (or else, "we're gonna shut our doors and you'll be out of a job").
Let's not allow a TRULY industry leading contract slip away (no ALPA propaganda intended here). We have leverage and we are the leverage. Think hard about that and you'll understand...
Welcome to Spirit, get involved and keep an open mind. Also, all pre-2010 pilots appreciate your compliment.