No one should bid Captain until also bidding 3 weeks of vacation. Imagine still being treated like the FNG in the left seat.

You should bid captain when your seniority allows and you understand the quality of life trade offs.

100% agree!

Every job in the world has good things and bad things about it.

One of the best things about our job is that I know of no other one where you can make a salary well into 6 figures and when your company offers you a promotion you can say "no thanks." And then the next month they will offer you a promotion and you can say "no thanks." And then the next month they will offer you a promotion ........

In the rest of the world if you make the kind of salary we make you might be able to get away with that once (and that is doubtful). Here we don't even bat an eye at the idea (until we have unfilled Captain bids)

Maybe “bid” is taken as the vacancy activation date?

There was no hiring between March 2020 and April 2021.

Yeah, that’s true. Not sure how someone would have a board date of Jan of 21, then.

leave of absence

you don’t accrue seniority on a LOA?

I totally agree. It took me 18 years to get to the left seat but I'm not going to begrudge anyone who takes a quick upgrade.

I will toss out one piece of advice for any junior pilots who are thinking that they may want to fly longhaul one day. Instead of bidding direct to the left seat of a narrowbody, bid right seat of the 777 or 787 to see if you like the lifestyle. Widebody is a whole different airline but some people aren't built to fly longhaul. Multiple time zones, long flights, crew bunks, etc. If you find longhaul's not for you, you can escape a seat lock by bidding left seat narrowbody.

I’d love to try long haul, but in my base it’s far more senior than NB captain by a bit, and that’s during Covid when a lot of people went to guppy that prefer long haul