Gentlemen (and Ladies) -
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When I got hired by PanAm 1968, it was clear to me that there was a strict seniority system in force, as per our ALPA contract. Was fine for me, no objection. Then, of course, I was 25 of age, did not know much, and we were told that we would be captains some 5 years "later", as PanAm was to take delivery of 25 B-747s, and 12 B-2707 SSTs, and was even considering to take options on Concordes...
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I was not happy with seniority because of base... I lived in Los Angeles, where I could not be based, because my seniority. All the senior pilots from New York, Chicago and Boston did bid San Francisco and Los Angeles to make a little extra money on longer Pacific flights... So, where was I based...? MIA with the 727... and JFK with the 707...
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All went fine, quickly went from F/E 727 to 707, then F/O 727 to 707 in a matter of 3 years, with P1 type rating on both types... Big smile... Then the October War hit in 1973 (can't these idiots ever stop fighting and mess-up our airline pilot careers...?) -
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Layoff... by chance, I got jobs overseas... Then, recall in 1979... Retraining... then National Airlines got absorbed by PanAm (to gain USA domestic routes) since PanAm was only an international airline with NO domestic USA routes... After a brief 3 months recall, layoff again... because our union decided that the merge of seniority lists was "2 PanAmigos" for "1 Maytag (NAL)"... There were pilots from National (who had been hired by National in 1971 or 1972)
junior to me who became
senior to me on the PanAm pilot list.
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In 1987, PanAm sold their Pacific division (and many airplanes) to United... Many pilots left, to join United (with their full seniority - date of hire)... I could have elected to go to United, but my heart was with PanAm (good guys wear white hats). Then all went to hell, PanAm bankruptcy in DEC 1991, with Delta taking most of our routes to Europe... but not the pilots...
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Of course, Delta was "nice enough" to give me an interview... I was captain and pilot instructor... and offered me to be
727 F/E with... new hire wages, and probably to teach Delta pilots how to speak ICAOese on the radio outside of the USA, on the routes they "stole" from the PanAmigos...
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I rest my case.
God bless Argentina which gave me direct entry 747 captain.
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Happy contrails