Aircraft assignments are extremely regulated by the contract. New positions must first be offered to all pilots on the seniority list. All pilots can bid on whatever they want as long as they don't have an existing freeze that prevents them from moving. Basically you will get a 24 month freeze as a new hire and at every subsequent bid you take that includes a change in aircraft or seat. If you are currently on a freeze as a 737 FO, you cannot bid over to the airbus until that freeze is over. You can however bid for any other 737 FO position at a different base or any 756/777/787 FO position or Captain on any aircraft. Basically freezes keep you from bidding down to a lower paying aircraft/seat or bidding across to the same paying aircraft seat. So, you can't bid from a 37 to A320 or 777 to 787 while on a freeze.

After all the future openings are offered to current seniority list folks on a vacancy bid, the "unfilled" assignments are available to the company for assignments to new hires. Those "unfilled" assignments are available for 93 days after the vacancy bid results are posted. That way new folks hired after a vacancy bid will get a shot at moving around within 3 months at the absolute latest if the company wishes to continue hiring.

So, we will not know if the upcoming classes in July will have Captain slots available to new hires for another month or so. We just closed a vacancy bid that was WB Captain assignments and their weren't any "unfilled" Captain assignments. (no surprise there) The last vacancy bid that had any unfilled assignments will be 93 days old on about the 15th of July, so it looks like all assignments for the July classes will be coming out of whatever the June vacancy bid unfilled assignments are.

If there are unfilled Catptain assignments and if the company offers them to new hires, then in seniority order in the class (oldest to youngest) they are available to those that meet the FAR 121 time requirements. If there are any left as they get to the bottom of the class seniority, they will be assigned to the junior pilots that meet the qualification requirments.

If you get assigned a Captain slot, you are trained as an FO on that airplane and assigned the same base as your Captain slot. Your freeze for bidding purposes is a 737 Captain, but you can bid for laterals to different bases as a 737 FO. You will fly as an FO until the company sends you to Captain school (see red above about timeline) Once you have the assignment as a new hire you can put in for a lateral to a different base (if you would like) for both your year as an FO and for your future assignment as a Captain. Those requests will be evaluated separately on all vacancy bids that happen after you start as a new hire. So, if you get ORD 737 Cap as your assignment, but really want IAH, you can request the IAH lateral. If the next vacancy bid you have the seniority to hold IAH as an FO on the 737 but not as a Captain, you will get an IAH 737 FO lateral. Then if your seniority on subsequent bids allow you to hold IAH 737 Cap, you will get that. If not, then when they eventually send you to 737 Captain school you will become an ORD 737 Captain until your seniority holds IAH.

If you get the Captain assignment "forced" on you as a new hire, you can leave that assignment as available to others. Then if folks on subsequent vacancy bids decide they really want the assignment they can take yours even if the company isn't offering any on the vacancy bid. 31 previously "forced" Captain bids were taken this way on the last vacancy bid. If that happens then you just become a 737 FO for bid/freeze purposes and now can bid on anything but Airbus FO.

The only other way you will lose the Captain bid is if the company is downsizing at the base you are at on the aircraft you are on. Given our pilot retirement numbers and our order book backlog for aircraft deliveries, I don't see this happening without the economy suffering another major event.