Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Nothing ironic about it, nature of the beast.
The top 20-30% of FO's are financially situated to not "need" to take the first upgrade, and they hang out in the right seat either for years or forever.
It's actually possible to be the sole family breadwinner on $300k
If you're solo, DINK, retired mil, etc it's pretty easy to "get by".
If the pilots (or the company) really hate that, it's possible to negotiate a contractual provision that you have to upgrade when your number comes up, AA used to have that, maybe others too. Ripping the bandaid off would be pretty hard though, all the senior FO's would be pizzed off, and all the junior CA's would be *really* pizzed off as they stagnate for years. New hires would love it though.
I just thought it was funny how due to covid my FO schedule was never really that great and I only got to see one month of what I'd like to do all the time before I was in class to upgrade. I think the next few upgrade classes, if we ever have them this year or even next year will go super senior. 30-40% of my trips I'm flying with an FO that's senior to me and once they warm up to me they all tell me they plan to upgrade whenever those start again.