^^^THIS^^^

look, there’s no denying that any CA is going to take a pay hit going to a legacy. And that pay hit isn’t trivial. That’s easy enough to see from the pay scales:
https://d2r1lrrqctgamh.cloudfront.ne...-29.pdf#page35

But as for the QOL stuff, you really have to experience what being on a junior fleet does to your base and seat seniority does. It seems like an awful lot of those senior to you would just as soon become a WB FO and get paid for bunk flying to faraway places with strange sounding names. I was 50% in seat before getting off my probationary year as many of those in the intro classes ahead of me chose to jump to WB FO as soon as they could. For those willing to stay in the narrow body fleet, particularly at a junior base , seat seniority comes pretty quickly at the FO level and with 600 retirements a year, upgrades will too, although the changes in reserve rules and especially long call has eased up on the NBCA shortage to the point that nobody is being awarded (and on rare occasion junior manned in to) CA awards in intro. SoFlo is right about that. Now for anyone with only a few years left, jumping to a legacy as a CA certainly isn’t going to pencil out financially , and if you aren’t now commuting staying in your base may be a must, everyone’s situation is always a little and sometimes a lot different. But right now with long call even senior commuters - well above the g-line - are bidding reserve.

https://d2r1lrrqctgamh.cloudfront.ne...29.pdf#page281

Yeah, I’ve bought a few hotels here and there as a commuter - even after holding a line - and I’ve traded into a red eye or two to make sure I could be at special family events and holidays, and I’ll probably never have an opportunity at WB CA, but for me the transition has worked pretty damn well.