so you get bypassed for a few months/years due to ra-65.
Patches, being bypassed for a few years is a bigger issue than you think. Had you joined a few months before you did and had the ability to operate a calculator then your view would be quite different.
As it stands now, a new joiner in December 07 could reasonable expect to be on command bypass pay for about 6-7 years. Should there be a recession in the airline industry sometime over the next 17 years then that time could easily be extended to let's say 10 years. The simple maths exercise goes like this and I'm using Pounds Sterling with all sums being rounded to the closest big number:
Difference between SFO yr 6 and Capt yr 1 = £20,000
6 years bypass pay 20,000 x 6 = £120,000
10 years bypass pay 20,000 x 10 = £200,000
Obviously these figures are approximate and you also have to bear in mind that bypass pay doesn't even come close to ameliorating the true lifetime earnings reduction that a delayed command results in (see separate post by NC).
This is just the basic pay element but when you introduce the availability of bases into the mix then the effects of the extensions are even more severe. Now......do you see why people are concerned?