radiation junkie and And5678,
I don't know who got promoted and who applied and missed out so I can't comment on that.
I reckon though that the company would rather promote experienced people provided they are willing to "play the game".
If you really want the job, you have to, whether it's in your heart or not.
That is how we survive in this job, or any job, from day 1.
That includes taking the job no matter what base it is offered in.
So many incompetents were promoted in the past just because they were willing to take Perth or Melbourne.
In fact when BFirst was introduced, one comment made by someone in management was that when promoting for BFirst, they were not going to "lower the bar" like they had to when choosing CSM's for MEL and PER.