Originally Posted by rickair7777

Correct. Even if you're senior to some captains, you can only bid for vacant CA slots. 5 CA vacancies means the five most (global) senior bidders get them (whether current CA's or senior FO's), and that's it, even if 500 people bid for the slots.

SAN opening did not cause any downgrades, it was the reductions in LAX/SFO that did that.