Wingnut, you're right, it's not perfect... but the seniority system is a long way from perfect! This seems to be the most equitible way of assigning seniority - even though that might make things a bit more painful to those who start in Q before the cadets do. The cadets will have had a direct association with Qantas long before those that might actually get the contract before them. It's a shame they'll miss out on all those standbys!
I guess there may have also been problems with start date seniority if they didn't all start on the same day (ie if AirNorth couldn't replace them immediately, or if Qantas didn't want them all at once).
Lancer