Easy:
Don't know where you got that quote from but it is considerably more patronising than it is correct.
There is technically no such thing as a frozen ATPL
It is a slang term (in the UK) for a CPL (Commercial pilots licence) with an appropriate Instrument Rating (IR).
The reason the term 'frozen' is used is that there are no further tests or exams required to convert it to an Air Transport Pilots Licence (ATPL) - simply an hours requirement (1500hrs minimum with other provisos such as night hours multi-crew hours etc - On the flip side you may have 25,000 hours and still have a frozen ATPL if you don't meet those requirements, so it is not specifically a low-hours qualification).
The second you have a fATPL you may quite happily sit in the right hand seat (as a First Officer) of any commericial airliner after appropriate special to type training (including an Airbus A380 if the company wishes to employ you to do so). Graduating to an ATPL simply allows you to move to the left seat as a Captain.
In the states there is no fATPL since there are further tests required to obtain an ATPL so you simply have an FAA CPL with IR.
Last edited by Ropey Pilot; 14th November 2005 at 06:32.