Originally Posted by PicklePausePull

Exactly!

And it is rather odd to have the senior captains here who: have been making maximum pay in the right seat for many years; who have voted to allow the back seat boys into the right seat years ago; who have 25 years of service but won't retire in the hopes that they get more money in the ensuing contract; who have had the fortune of upgrading to the right seat in 8-10 years... to now tell first officers we are not team players if we do not forego extra flying. Huh? Widebody upgrades are now 14-16 years, costing a large percentage of this crew force hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings. Many will be over 60 before they can upgrade. To ask this half of the crew force to stop flying extra is, I think, a bit selfish.

The contract allows us to fly extra. If we don't, Atlas and Polar will do the flying from our ramps. I don't think any captain here has any right to ask the lesser paid to dig deeper for them after the 7-9 years of longer upgrades.j For some, the extra flying is a partial replacement for the many years of lost future revenue.

It is a different company now than it was five years ago. Shrinking crew force, loss of wide body aircraft, long upgrades.