Originally Posted by
Herkflyr
I certainly concur with your first paragraph regarding the list decade and stagnation. Why do you say a 16-17 year FO "has little hope" of moving beyond narrowbody domestic FO?
Any of them can now hold widebody FO (at the least) and with lots of retirements coming that will only get better... even if long overdue.
For many of us, what Herkflyr says is true. Widebody FO IS a possibility now (as is narrowbody CA) if you want to:
1. Commute
2. Go back to the bottom 20% or so of the category.
3. Give up what little relative seniority you have scraped together so far.
For me personally, I'm not bitter at all. I choose to be happy. I'm content to stick it out where I am and look forward to the day when I crack the top 25% or so of my category and base. I have no desire to commute and have told myself I was going to stay put until I finally find out what it is like to be fairly senior in my seat. After that happens, I'll consider widebody FO or narrowbody CA upgrade. If retirement comes first....so be it. With all of the retirements and hiring it should get better. I hope so. So far not much has changed where I sit. At least I've finally cracked the 50% mark. This reply is not a "woe is me" response. Just want to make sure nobody gets "out of touch" by assuming everything is unicorns and rainbows now that we are retiring and hiring again.