It’s out now.

Folks are saying the days of displacement to captain are over, but wouldn’t we all get displaced in seniority order to what we can hold anyway if no one preferences?

I don’t understand the mentality I have to preference otherwise I risk not getting what I want. I guess it wouldn’t matter if everyone had the same mind set.

it just seems if everyone displaces (or the vast majority) it leaves us with much more money, and flexible options down the road. Maybe an unpopular idea, but curious of others’ thoughts.

maybe proffer to displace is the best compromise if everyone played by the same plan?

It is however I don't think the union is allowed to say that. Also try getting a 23 year old cadet to not preference for his shiny jet

Or, do you want to risk being displaced where you have to commute if you live in base. 5hrs extra ain't worth the aggravation.

I said similar things and they couldn’t stop it. It is NOT a job action to educate your pilots about how the contract and process works. It all depends how it’s done.

Factually, it doesn’t impact the operation at all, the correct number of pilots will either bid or displace to CA. All that changes is the cost factor. Exercising a contractual right is not a job action.

I guess what I am asking is this:

if EVERYONE displaces, or if EVERYONE preferences, wouldn’t the results be identical? Everything would shake out in seniority order.

the only thing that causes the issues you mention above would be when some people displace and some people preference.

ie, if everyone preferences for what their seniority can hold, you would be displaced making the 5 hour commute anyway if you are junior.

That’d be the case only if everyone proffers to displace.

The problem is that too many pilots think like this. Even when EVERY SINGLE QUALIFIED FO WAS BEING DISPLACED, I kept being told by guys, "I preference bid because I didn't want to take a chance on missing out of the 175" (they could have held it via displacement) or "I didn't want to risk going to another base".

And back then, the worst case scenario would be just not accepting the seat lock (or even taking if it was just a base issue) and preference bidding what you really wanted on the next bid.

Today, it's a little harder choice for someone I think given that even the company has to resort to forced upgrades, there will still be qualified FOs that don't get displaced so there's 3 months or so of captain pay on the line if you guess wrong.

Or an even more extreme example, 3 months or so delay to your flow.

Well yeah, but I don't think of someone that is just now becoming qualified and being close to flow as being the norm. The ones in that situation know their situation is different.