..and therein lies the rub. YOU want to "flow back to the left seat of a PSA aircraft"in the event of furlough while THEY get to flow up into a mainline F/O slot,if indeed you guys are hiring (fat chance at this point).If you want to reach some sort of consensus on flow through it should be flow down to right seat positions only."
Um... sure. That makes sense... and if that is the current line of thinking then perhaps only first officers at PSA should be able to flow to mainline because, after all, they'll be first officers when they get there! Right?
If you upgrade you're no longer eligible for the flow. Sound fair?
Give me a break. I think you've been drinking some bad kool-aid. It doesn't work that way. You are asking the mainline MEC to give you a gift -- a mainline seniority number without an interview. That means that some of you folks who would lack the basic requirements to be hired by a major (like a college degree for example) might have a shot at the "brass ring" (yes, it sounds silly talking about a company with 1000+ furloughs as a "brass ring").
Ok, so what do you offer in return? Simple. Furlough protection. A bidirectional flow limits the economic impact of downsizing by allowing a junior mainline pilot to flow down to a job that pays (theoretically) similar pay rates.
If you want the BENEFIT of the flow, then you take the good with the bad. Flow up when times are good, flow back when times are bad.
The price isn't even paid by you. All you will lose is your left seat -- Your junior pilots who will be furloughed as a result of the flowback truly pay the price.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. Everything has its price. The price for the hundreds of replacement jets was J4J (although if you could convince Doug to park the RJs and bring back my DC9 i'll sure be happy to go fly it again!).
You want to flow up to mainline but when times are tough have me flow back to your copilot seat??? Come on. Welcome to aviation kiddo. Read my screen name. It didn't happen by making any different decisions than you would have made.
-FurloughedAgain