Wow,
must be 4 am and a million empty bottles on the table for the 'discussion' to denigrate to this.
For the SOs reading this. CX has always been able to recruit DEFOs. It did until 1996 but has always retained the right to do it. It hasn't in the past cause it is cheaper to have SOs. But now that the training system is maxing out, training courses are the limiting factor. You do not lose seniority because of DEFOs. You will get bypass pay when entitled.
Next point. Lets say CX can do only 300 courses over 12 months. For every upgrade to CN you need an FO upgrade from SO and a recruit to SO. I am going to ignore transfers between fleets to keep it simple. So basically a CN upgrade needs 3 courses. So if CX only recruits SOs it can only expand by say 100CNs. If CX hires DEFOs, it could theoretically expand by 150CNs as the other 150courses would go to DEFOs. That would be the worst case for current SOs...but if the airline can sustain a higher growth rate due to DEFO's, time to command will come faster as all SOs are senior to the DEFOs and 50 people ahead of them on the ASL were promoted to CN, and that 50 would not have been upgraded if CX didn't recruit DEFOs!
The reality is likely to be somewhere in between. A mixture of SOs and DEFOs recruited and some SOs upgraded. Of course there will be the initial influx of DEFOs as the company has stated that it is happy to overfill FO positions on 3man route basings such as Australia, and use extra FO in lieu of an SO.
I have yet to meet anyone that has any problem with a DEFO pax or freighter pilot. PPRUNE seems to have some vociferous SOs though.
To potential DEFO joiners, don't sweat it....the angst on this website is not representative of what happens in the company.
cheers and good luck!
PS A/T less, good luck in your job hunt. You are obviously too unhappy to stay here.
Last edited by Numero Crunchero; 14th Feb 2007 at 09:06.