Originally Posted by
atooraya
What was the answer you came up with? I'm looking at 25% of Alaska's list retiring in 11 years and 49% at Delta. At 51% on the seniority list, you can be a line holding captain at Delta?
Since others already answered the yes/no, I'll fill you in on some of the why.
There are pilots who choose to bid FO's as senior pilots. There are a lot of opportunities for a senior FO in a category. The #1 FO for NYC A220 would be the #1 CA if he'd bid for it. Without having spoken to him, he is likely planning on bidding to fly with LCA so he gets bought off most trips and can either get paid to not come in or green slip and get triple pay. Add onto that the widebody categories where there are more than a few who would prefer to be career FOs with the widebody schedule rather than fly domestic and there are a fair number of senior pilots flying right seat and we aren't even touching those who don't want to upgrade if they can hold a better schedule as an FO period or CAs biddin to be senior reserve. This means CA seats and CA lines go more junior.
Again this is only for accuracy. I'm sure the above applies to any airline that has both narrowbody and widebody flying.