Kane Toed,
I have been thinking about your post. You are right in that if they need 150FOs next year and 50 are DEFO then you will be 'disadvantaged' by 50 courses. It will have NO effect on your time to command but will affect how long it takes to get a window seat. The mitigating factor is that if CX was training constrained for years, the 50 places you lose now might be made up for by having more simulator time available for CN upgrades in 3-5 years when these DEFOs would have been upgraded to FOs if they had joined as SOs! Does that make sense? Basically, no course difference now, but more courses available in the future. But it probably doesn't help you as you may be 6-8years away from CN????
Onto SYD bases...I don't think it will have any major effect on you wanting a base in SYD. It will still be seniority issued. CX couldn't fill the base and couldn't get people to join as SOs so they combined the two problems and the solution is DEFOs. In future, guys will leave the base to get upgraded and so slots will become available. From past experience they usually offer it to pax FOs....if they can't get them, and they ignore SOs, they can recruit DEFOs. Its a bit like freighter commands! CX still wants to have FOs in HKG....its just seen a temporary niche market in filling 2 bases with DEFOs. ONce they are filled, it will go back to normal. ANy vacancies on a base will be offered within the seniority list!
Hope I did a better job answering your questions, cheers adn merry xmas
EP
Bne is like the holy grail, xanadu, mecca....no one gets it unless they just finished working in management.