There’s a world of difference between a new hire who feels ready for the upgrade & one who does not. Some people are comfortable upgrading in a type they’ve never flown. Others want to get to know the airplane from the right seat for more or less time than is being offered them in this contract; but we’ve always given pilots the choice to determine when they felt ready & taking that choice away just knocks down the first major safety gate in the upgrade process. Also, since BI seniority goes by age, these forced assignments will be kicked down to the youngest, & therefore less experienced guys in every class. So enough with this “a lot of guys are coming in with great experience” line. These forced slots are not going to that Emirates WB captain or the ex mil guy with loads of global command time. They’re going to the kid who is still getting his bearings in the industry & didn’t ask to be running his own ship. If a NH asks for the seat & can pass the training course, fine. If he doesn’t, don’t put him in command is all I’m saying. Today’s new hire is less experienced- on average- than in the past. We should be mentoring these new guys by using QOL & pay improvements to entice experienced captains into showing them the ropes. Instead we’re forcing them to take command so we can hurry up & get our Delta rates. Weak.

It would be one thing if we were getting something out of this, but it’s baffling to me that so many are turning a blind eye to this issue in order to give something to the company. If we’re clutching pearls, some of you seem to be clutching those retro checks pretty tightly.