I know better than to think everyone agrees with my opinions. Although over a sample size large enough, increased age will, indeed, yield more general experience and by definition more "life experience", which I value in a Captain. Passengers do too, as Sully will tell you having heard many passengers describe their pleasure in seeing gray hair in the cockpit on his big day.

Like you, and WAY more than this experience/age correlation concept, I value the earning years benefits of sorting by age. I also like those with fewer "working recovery years" to stay on property longer or continually during furlough. The whole concept is a bucket of goodness and that's probably why United still uses it despite being as politically correct as any corporation.

It's funny that anyone would charge age discrimination in this industry, which uses a min age for ATP certification and specifically age discriminates everyone at age 65 independent of one's actual health. Come think of it, isn't that gender description, since men and women don't have identical health risks in their sixties???