I know that "this time is different", but-

Anyone remember all the hubub about 9E when they opened ATL and there was word of street captains? Lots of interest in 9E. That was right about 6-7 years ago, wonder what happened to a lot of those pilots....

How about RAH and the huge influx of "guppy killlers". One of the worst contracts out there, but there was a feeding frenzy. If my memory serves me right, that started about 8 years ago. Wonder what happened to a lot of the pilots that jumped over......

And Goat Jet? How did it work out for a lot of the lateral movers there?

Or when Gulfstream became Silver a few years ago, lots of jumpers for the quick upgrade and or street captains. What's up at Silver now?.....

The list goes on, and the story will repeat as long as there is a FFD segment of the industry. You could take the threads from '06-'07 about the whipsaw and lateral moves and quick upgrades, etc and read them today and think it was current, just change the names and the details.

Some percentage of the pilots who make a lateral move will come out ahead, sometimes WAY ahead. Some will just be screwing themselves, sometimes very badly. And the piloting career will keep sliding backwards regardless of how it turns out for individuals.