If this job is about experience and qualifications, would you then agree that we should have a competitive selection process for upgrades at mainline? If you want to upgrade to a higher paying seat you submit an application to a board and/or go through an interview process that determines if you have obtained enough experience and qualifications for the next level. What about the FAA minimums for an ATP and then and additional 1000hrs prior to PIC of 121 operation? Are they not high enough?

I think we can all agree that this job really isn't 100% about experience and qualifications. As long as the airline still has the luxury of hiring good personalities that meet the requirements and are trainable and take the job seriously - I'm fine with their approach. It is highly unlikely that we will be forced to hire pilots at the bare ATP minimums and then upgrade them the moment they hit 1000hrs in the right seat. That is exactly what is happening at our regional partners. There is usually only 1 or 2 outliers in each class with respect to age/experience and that means a couple dozen or so per year out of hundreds of extraordinarily well qualified new hires. For whatever reason they were hired...I'm ok with the overall trend of who is making it to Basic Indoc.