Its easier to view
traditional seniority structures with an Excel Spreadsheet in the back of your mind.
Bottom left of the sheet: lots of working nights weeekends and holidays. Rise to the top of the first column, and the money and schedule are better for your homelife (and paying for it
). Shift a column over, and the 'on reserve', flying Christmas Eve, and on your wife's birthday start all over again.
What changes as you shift columns is that: A) the view from your office changes (view from the left corner window, or a bigger faster cubicle). B) you receive more cash, but your new office may be in another building (you may have to change bases from say YVR to YHZ).
It takes most of your working life to go to the top of the right hand column. While most people generally enjoy the ride all the way along, their families may have conflicting opinions.
While
I'm in the top right hand column where I am
, I can see a lot of merit to WestJet's system. There, seniority applies to upgrades only (for all intents and purposes). As I see it, each working month a pilot receives 'X' points to bid on days on or off. Don't want to overnight for the next few months because you have a new baby in the family? 'Y' points will cover that. Points unused accumulate in the bank.
Essentially, the key events in your life, or your approach to work/ home time reflects how many points you are willing to bid to secure your kid's birthday, or your anniversary off.
If you were single, and just wanted to fly as much as you legally could and accumulate points so you could disappear to someplace tropical for a long stretch: you could bid the long, difficult pairings over several long weekends (on the night shift), and build points to bank for when you needed to get away.
In fact since my current weather is rather dismal (CYRB 091300Z 15008KT 4SM BR BKN003 OVC007 M01/M02 A2992 RMK SF3SC3 SUN DIMLY VIS SLP141), that tropical thing sounds like a great idea right about now.