We have a lot of expectations that play heavily in our favor in most cases. Pay expectations are a big one of course. But even in this hypothetical case, pay is pay. Having four stripes because you think its cool isn't much to hang your hat on, so the smaller (and almost definitely lower paying) airline using just the pay argument from being captain would lose hard in making that case.

Of course it depends on what the pay rates are, but I'd assume if we did a total LBP blended scale (which I'm not advocating for and which I don't foresee happening anytime soon if ever) then that table would by its very nature still be above the smaller theoretical acquisition and from an earnings perspective would dwarf their hypothetical lower pay faster upgrade model.

Then comes into play all the other expectations, like retirements (for the next 10 years we're at or neat the top of the industry for that), retirement contribution, profit sharing, work rules and QOL, etc that all buff pay in the first place as well.

While the other smaller airline might attempt to say "a captain is a captain, full relative or bust!" I don't think that will work out for them at all. When presented with the mountains of evidence that career expectations here are significantly higher, separate AC pay, bands or even blended LBP wouldn't hurt us IMO. Unless we roll over as part of an ALPA conspiracy to sacrifice our group to some broader "see what ALPA membership gets you!" campaign of course. But even that is likely a small threat since JB, VX and NK all recently joined anyway.

As for Hawaiian I don't see that happening. They are horribly in debt (crushing debt for their size) and other than a very tiny number of slots they bring absolutely zero value to the table compared to doing it on our own.