If this bid doesn't work out for anybody....there will be another one next year I suppose.

As for those who sit senior FO....as a new hire SO I flew with FOs who could have been captains..with good seniority in the base. Being a newbie and not understanding the thought process, I asked a captain about why these FOs were doing what they were doing?

His answer didn't make a lot of sense at the time, but 30 years on I get it completely....he told me, 'if you stay in the copilot seat long enough, it wont matter to you what else you can hold, mentally that's what you will permanently become, an FO.....and that's where you will retire.'

Over the last few years I have flown with a lot of senior FOs, and what that Captain told me as a new hire.....now makes a lot of sense.