MYT
I think the Germans have a word for all this... schadenfreude.
LIFO did not work when BA bought Dan Air, the fall out and ill feeling still being felt over ten years later. Senior skippers with 20 years seniority were let go and the junior f/o's in gatwick on the right fleet kept on. This all negotiated with balpa of course.
The airline that took them over employed the sort of mainline Captain who, on retirement, chose to register for unemployment benefit aged 55, job seeker B747, drawing the dole to supplement his pension and rather proudly announced so in the balpa log magazine. Some took their lives, unable to cope with the loss of a second 'family.' It is a harsh business and twas ever so. Every man for himself still seems to work for the directors. Be nimble and good luck.
koi.