Now you’re hitting on something big. We ought to stop focusing on why the most junior pilots are passing on NBCA perma-reserve, and start asking ourselves why so many mid-upper seniority pilots who could be NBCA lineholders today are also passing on it. The obvious answer is that the amount of extra compensation is too frequently deemed not worth the extra work & responsibility.

I would never say WBFO is an overpaid seat, but I do think NBCA is an underpaid one. With such a massive influx of new pilots who are, on average, less experienced than anything this industry has seen in a long time, UAL should be focused not just on filling CA seats, but filing them with the most tenured, experienced pilots they can. A successful solution to this problem, in my opinion, would be junior NBCA returning to 60%-65%, not just figuring out a way to “catch” enough guys who weren't eligible on the previous run.