You probably find that the posters above who are in favour of a seniority based system are working for seniority based airlines and the ones against it aren't working for a seniority based airline or are not content with their current employer.
Belonging to the former group I do really appreciate a seniority system having worked for an airline without seniority system before. In that airline there was zero transparency and the general feeling was DEC were (at the time, I've no idea how things are these days) prioritised over internal upgrades. In order to lure DEC in they were given the base of choice. First officers lucky enough to pass the upgrade (less then 25% at the time while the chances were significantly better if you had flew for the right RAF or Navy squadron if that by itself wasn't already enough for DEC) were directed to the less popular bases to show their loyalty.
In my current airline because of seniority things are very transparent. I probably took a hit career wise to join my current outfit in return for job stability (I've been trough an airline bankruptcy once and the charter/holiday airlines in the UK don't have a very impressive track record with regards to survivability). As 172_driver mentioned before I would therefor not be impressed if (hypothetical since as 172_driver already said there is no need for DEC were I work and it is even less likely that we ever say goodbye to the seniority system) the ones who elected career progression above job stability jumped the list as DEC. They are more than welcome to join but only at the bottom of the seniority list with the corresponding rank.
Last edited by Jumbo2; 11th Oct 2019 at 21:35.