Oh boy, you hit a sore spot with me.

In 2005 I was displace form the B737 CA seat in May due to the bankruptcy. I was in the middle of the pack of first round displacments. Immediately thereafter, ATA management awarded 8 or 10 captain spots to FO's that have never been captain, at any time, anywhere. Most were PFE's that upgraded to FO and barely met the minimum pilot time to upgrade, which is arbitrary to begin with. The contract language was pretty explicit that this shouldn't happen, but our union leadership, led by ex-FE's, decided that seniority rules. Three months after I was displaced they began training. Those that upgraded early, have more PIC jet time than I do, but I have more TPIC than they do. When ATA shut down, they found jobs quicker than me, and better ones at that. I've had a hard time forgiving ALPA for this. They've also done little to help out ATA guys get jobs.

Language needs to be explicit in the contract that displaced CA's should come back to the left seat first when vacancies appear.