promotion
Sidebustle
Agree with a lot you say.
There are many crew who have done 12 yrs+ who think that they should get promotion just because they have been there 12+ yrs. Usually the type who never read anything the company sends them and therefore out of the loop when it comes to what the company are looking for when promoting and subsequently fail and become bitter.
The seniority thing is why the American carriers fail in my opinion. The top 30% are happy because they cherry pick the routes the next 30% are reasonably happy because they hope to move up to the top 30% soon. The bottom 40% are totally hacked off/demotivated as they do the poor routes all the time. It could be argued, as you say , that bidding for positions is counter productive too. It is unlikely that the company will change the seniority bidding system for current crew. I don`t recall it being on their shopping list with regard to current crew but believe for the new crew it will be different.
As regards direct entry SCCM I don`t think it will work there are so many unique situations on an aircraft that experience is paramount to deal with/ solve. Personally i think 3 years is the minimum required to be considered as SCCM.