I don't know how "overstaffed" Spirit thinks they are on Captains, but based on my conversation with a couple of different folks that do pilot interviews at UA, it sounds like there are a great many Spirit Captains that are getting ready to leave. This may not be fast enough to help, but may mean that Spirit gets into a recall mode much sooner than they anticipated.

I know that UA is not looking at all folks with CJOs the same as they used to. Now, they are prioritizing the class dates for the off the street hires based on the company's overall assesment of the applicant based on their application and interview. This means that those that had a much high score on their application (experience) will likely be given a class date ahead of somebody who's score on the application was lower. Aviate/Flow and Military folks will still be given classes based on their availability based on the individual program's rules, but true off the street hires will not be first CJO means first class date. I am not sure how DL or AA are planning to handle this as their classes start back up, but it wouldn't surprise me if they did the same thing.

I know this is ****es folks off that got CJOs last Spring/Summer, but it will likely help a current 121 Captain with a bunch of 121 PIC and SIC time get a class date before somebody who has substantially less experience.

BTW, I will give a PSA based on the discussion I just had with one of our interview pilots. Just being a Captain does not give you a leg up on the interview, so please don't assume it does. He had a couple stories of folks taking the technical portion of the interview for granted and that didn't end well. The technical portion just uses a phase of flight discussion based on the information they send you in the interview packet, but when the applicant is not ready to discuss alternate requirements, fuel requirements, approach minimums, minimum fuel, emergency fuel, etc, it really leaves the interview pilot with no choice. Not stump the dummy type questions, but probably worth some review for those that haven't been in the interview environment for awhile.