It’s more complex than that - largely driven by seniority.

When the merger fell through, most of the senior CAs were telling the FOs they flew with to put out apps for the legacies. Their rationale was that there weren’t going to be any upgrades for a long time and furloughs were quite likely. And the senior FOs for the most part didn’t have that much to lose. Sure, some would have to give up some 401k, and they’d lose pay that first probationary year, but second year legacy pay was roughly equal to what they’d be making at fourth year NK pay, and after that they’d be money ahead to make the jump. Besides, by going elsewhere that would be one less junior FO facing furlough. The CAs weren’t going themselves, of course, because they were not just on CA pay, but were on 4to12 year CApay, and probationary FO was a h€LL of a pay hit, not to mention starting at the bottom of the seniority for QOL.

So a lot of FOs took that advice, then came bankruptcy(cies) and the threat became reality. Furloughs were going to hit QOL for all but the most senior FOs and Displacements were going to hit even the junior CAs. So suddenly the opportunity cost to jump to a legacy - even for the junior CAs - became less.

Now if Chapter 11 becomes Chapter 7 (and we hope it won’t but hope ain’t been doing well at NK for a couple of years), more very senior highly experienced guys are going to be on the market, because their seniority will become worthless. It’s a big hit for them if it happens, far worse than it has been for most of the NK people previously hired who were relatively junior.

So if you mean by “getting shafted” having to compete against a lot of people with a lot of 121 A320 time, yeah it’ll happen, not just because ALPA legacies are giving them a break, but because others will be competing against a very experienced and highly competitive group, even moreso than the earlier NK hires.