First, let me clarify that I wasn't forced to upgrade. I bid on it, and when the class date was offered, I accepted.

The policy is one shot at the training event. But, like JetJock had pointed out, you either have to fail something twice (written, FTD, sim, oral, practical, IOE, etc) or fail once on three individual things.

I did the latter. I failed the oral at noon Friday, and went in and failed the sim at 6am Saturday. They elected not to give me a second try at either, which in itself is a failure, and the third one for me.

By the way, I want to make it clear that the company did in fact follow the rule to the letter. That's exactly what is allowed.

So, I got a call the very next day after my training was stopped from the Training manager, and he simply said, "you failed three things in training, and I have to terminate your employment". I asked if I could reapply. No, I was banned for life. He didn't offer to let me quit either. Interestingly, the guy who fired me was never exposed to this rule. He hired on in 1981-ish, and the up-r-out rule came to SkW in 1989.

I gotta say, of course, that I made mistakes in training. That's legit. Could I have been "trained to succeed". Of course. Would it have made sense to send me back as an FO on the CRJ ? I'd say yes, but the current rules don't allow for that, unless you're in the good 'ole boy club, etc.