billy one sock
it is not rediculous, and people are not 'placed' anywhere. You wanna work for a company you play by their rules. You know what the rules are at BA, you know what the rules are at ryanair - theres no point working for either then complaining about the system they use.
Theres a whole generation of people in this industry and all others that think they have some devine right to have the world work by their rules. It doesn't work like that. you have to play the cards you're dealt, not spend your whole life trying to change the deck and shoot the dealer.
If you don't like seniority systems then go and work for a company without one, but don't complain when another bright young thing wants to short cut the system and cuts in front of you by agreeing to work for less, chatting up the chief pilot, has the right face etc etc.
i'll state again my own experiences - I've worked in a so called meritocracy and it is a deeply flawed system - it is far far too exposed to corruption. Ultimately if you want an uncorrupt system, then it has to be based on a factual, objective (not subjective) parameter. Date of joining is such a parameter. I'm sure there are a few others. But 'merit', 'performance' etc are subjective and corruptable, even if you have a proper system built around them - which most companies don't.