Perhaps I am missing something, but after reading the LOA unless you bid Paris as an upgrade, you will have less buying power for the money you earn even with the LOA provisions. Pilots sitting in the same seats in Memphis can buy more with what's left over than pilots in Paris. My question is this: Why would anyone want to bid a base where they'd make less money than a similarly seated pilot in the US?
I don't understand this LOA, especially for narrowbody pilots. As a MEM based narrowbody FO I'll bet my spending power would be, conservatively, 18-20% less as a CDG narrowbody FO. So why would I do it? The LOA merely makes up for some of the incidental costs associated with living there, but it doesn't even approach adequately compensating a pilot for agreeing to be based in a foreign country.
Someone smarter than me needs to explain it. Maybe the widebody guys in HKG might do better, but the narrowbody CDG-types are going to get thumped. All for the 'privilege' of living in France?
It's a no.
They can put newhires there if they like.