In my 2.5 years here I’ve found that 95% of the CA’s seem to be great, honestly fantastic all around. Knowledgeable, kind, easy to work with, professional.

The other 5% have made my jaw drop with utter unprofessionalism and lack of regard for SOP and safety. Every member of that 5% I’ve encountered has been here 10+ years and let the age/entitlement/seniority/Captainitis erode away whatever professionalism they had when they were hired. I could write paragraphs about the egregious behavior I’ve seen.

On the contrary, the less experienced CAs I’ve flown with have never - in my personal experience - done these things or behaved this way, including all the sub-2000 hour regional CAs I flew with.

Training/professionalism/culture is equally as valuable as experience in my book, not that I want the 4000 hour rule to change.
I’m less worried about recruiting lowering their hour minimums and more worried about them letting in these clowns that don’t have the respect for this job that they should. A ‘kid’ my age shouldn’t have to look left at someone with 5x my experience and twice my age and cringe at the way he is handling the operation or treating his crew/pax. Stuff I never saw at the regionals. But again, that’s only 5%, maybe less. Most of you guys are great mentors and set an example.

I’m not trying to start a generational war here but I genuinely think the biggest threat to this airlines safety record and overall reputation is about 30 fairly senior pilots, and not the “inexperienced” ones that have to whip out the FOM when solving issues at the gate.