I think this logic is spot on. It is possible that with upcoming major hiring the majors overall want the regionals to become revolving doors while having their top 20% lifers capped to be 'profitable'. In a perfect world, after this volatility and consolidation among regionals a new FO should never see 4th year pay and most captains would be out before 8 years. That makes a 12/4 pay cap justifiable for management and they will try and sell it to ALL remaining regionals that don't have it...including AWAC at some point in theory.