The seniority system is flawed for sure. Unfortunately, management can not be trusted to promote pilots in a fair way. If they were allowed to promote captains or issue schedules based on "performance," safety would suffer. No doubt. I've been in this industry too long and worked as captain for 5 different airlines. I've seen enough to know that seniority is the ONLY way to run an airline.

That being said, I don't think seniority should be the end all be all. I worked in Europe where all 3 airlines assigned schedules on a rotating basis. Everyone served reserve (about 2 days a month), and everyone flew the bad trips. I liked the system because it instilled "Esprit de Corps." It is much easier to get everyone behind a strike (or any issue) if the working conditions affect everyone similarly. No one lives like a king simply because they got hired a year earlier. I remember jump seating on a Pan Am 747 years ago. All 3 guys had been there for about 25 years yet they had drastically different lifestyles.