Not taking sides but isn't that the reason the company advertised the freighter command slots. All the "ASL" commands were available to anyone in the company. As I understand it there were more than 90 applicants, not sure how many were awarded. Some of these were pax captains that wanted a basing so this has in fact created some pax command vacancies in Hong Kong as well. All the ASL Capts got was a guarantee to remain on their base in the left seat. So effectively most of the freighter bases will be overstaffed and the FACA will probably effectively remain so that the company can get there pound of flesh from those that are on the freighter. As I understand they are all at the bottom of the list (as at 01/01/08) and will not get a pax command until their seniority comes up.
Of course the flaw in the argument is that the company doesn't move the goal posts, again!!!