Junior line holder ORD 787 Captain is seniority 3052. How long will it take someone hired today to get to 3000 seniority? Also, 76’s are being replaced by 78’s so that number will probably move to 4-5000.

Not to be a Debbie Downer but these are crazy times. Historically speaking this rapid growth will come to a screeching halt at some point and we’ll revert back to the mean. I know it doesn’t seem that way but look at the history of this profession. Some unforeseen event “historically” happens that puts on the brakes. Who knows what the future holds but the past tells us that it will come. Shortly after I was hired in the mid 90’s we had 2 yr CAs. The senior CAs then told stories of how they flew the panel for 10 years and we laughed at them. Then 9/11 happened and those 2 year CAs were reserve FOs soon after. Age 65 happened and prolonging their FO life but I was in the group lucky enough to just be stuck as an FO for a decade vs going back in the guard or working at Home Depot. 20 yrs is a long way out to try to hope that this trajectory will continue…..

more like 6500
with additional aircraft and retirements will be WB captain by 2026

This was changed in the last contract. At DAL, such a trip is a proffer and the reserve may refuse. If the reserve elects to fly it, it’s flown at a 100% premium on the days that were supposed to be off.

To add to this post under the old contract the company could in fact fly you into a off day at Delta however it was so far down the coverage ladder the company had to exhaust almost every other option. Not once in my career did I get scheduled on reserve into an off day. If they did schedule you into an off day they had to give you a payback day and all flying was added on top of the reserve guarantee. A reserve could volunteer to fly into off days on a greenslip and got the same benefits. When the company chose to go skinny on reserves this led to rolling thunder where a reserve pilot could credit 150 hours, bank 10 payback days and only work 12 days or less. The 10 payback days used carefully could be worth 80 hours or more in subsequent months.
Another benefit of it being nearly impossible for the company to involuntarily fly a reserve into off days is longer trips especially on the international side had to be broken up and deadheads added. Instead of getting 17 hours to fly a 3 to trip to Europe I picked these broken trips up every month and got 21 to 26:30 for the same 3 days of work plus positive space to and or from the trip. I often dropped my entire line to pick up broken trips.

Can reserves pick up trips on days off?

No……………..

(filler)

I'm currently at Spirit and awaiting the Spirit/JetBlue merger (assuming it goes through). Since I have 20 years left are there still reasons or opportunities to go to United since by the time I hold wide body Captain would be right before I retire?

My main reason for going to United would be that I could pick up the 737 in ORD relatively quickly and I know ORD isn't going to be downsized or closed.

If this is a serious question, then uh... yes

Stay at the merged airline that may hold 7 gates in ORD, or may close up shop on ORD all together, or go to the one that has 4 fleet types operating out of two terminals in ORD and is headquartered in Chicago? UAL in ORD is like JetBlue in JFK.