Nope....the system starts in seniority order and, as I understand it, keeps looping around until it gets to the most junior pilot. In effect, you might have been awarded an AE as it first looped through your prefences but, as it gets down to the MDs, if enough of those junior pilots have an MD preference to your AE category, your AE could go away as they take up the posted vacancies. That is how the 22.E.1 exception comes into play. You can't AE into a category if your AE combined with VDs/MDs would cause a displacement.

The DTW thing happened because the company posted 10 surpluses but then a DTW77A decided to AE to the 350 this creating a contingent vacancy. Looking back, The LAX777A took a VD (not an AE as I previously thought) to DTW to fill that contingency vacancy under 22.F.6.A.