I understand that. And I agree about the QOL reasons you stated above. My point was why would he think that NOW is the time. Is it the size of this vacancy and the chance that there will be 3-4 more?

A large chunk of pilots hired between 90-97 have fairly comfortable seniority as a narrow body Captain since recent bids have gone junior.

I would also guess that their age is playing a factor in the decision as retirement looms in the next decade. In the same thought, many have remained an FO for family commitments. The empty nest provides a lot of freedom.

Got it. Thanks for the explanation. I've been wondering about this. How many are actually going to do it though. Seems that there is quite an allure towards WB FO instead. Having the extra time off and a more laid back day turns into crack when compared to the alternative of working another couple days every month and multiple turns a day with minimum layover times. It'll be interesting what things look like after these bids.

Spirit? ................

First snap shot out

Yup. And you can already see it's at 9000 except for SFO airbus CAP, which won't last. First bid is always so junior, so by final bid, everything will be sub 9000 for CAP and most likely closer to 8500.

Yeah, a few were saying Cap would go junior. I didn't think it would...

Are you saying the next 3 or 4 bids before summer 18 that were mentioned will go senior to 9000? Or are you saying the snapshots on this first bid will go more senior...like they always do.

This particular bid definitely sub 9000. Heck you see many already sub 8500. I think the later bids will be around 9000 and less for all bases and optimistically in SFO go to 9500 tops, but that's a stretch too. But for "Master of Puppets" to think Airbus to 10500, is smoking crack.

At Delta 12450 seniority out of 12980 captain on the MD80 JFK
WB FOs have no desire to go and upgrade