One of my amusing exchanges re promotion was some years ago and went as follows:
I'd left GF to return to BA just as I was #2 on the list for L1011 command assessment after four years (pretty good, I thought, even for ex RAF with 14 years airline experience). A couple of years later, on a B744 nightop SIN, we got talking to a couple of Australian GF FOs.
They were having a big moan about not being captains after nearly two years in the company.
When I pointed out that two years as FO was not very long their response was "You know, we've flown aeroplanes before we joined GF, mate!"
How we laughed.
