Originally Posted by
waterskisabersw
This is true, but you could also conversely be stuck doing a 2 leg east to west coast commute to reserve for those two years, which for some is definitely not worth it.
As for the CA pay vs FO pay, it's based on a 12 month look back, so most FOs near upgrade, they're probably at the cap anyway.
Yup. Personally, I think I’d much rather be stuck as a very Senior FO, consistently holding pretty much one of my top 5 monthly lines I want while maintaining POT and vacation bidding power over being stuck commuting as a very junior reserve CA to a domicile I dislike.