Thanks for your helpful post 411A, it is now clear to me that as soon as 1 or 2 minor details such as
1) Cathay changing their recruitment opinions about (militant) Nth Americans
2) The retirement age being changed
3) Finding people that actually want to come to Cathay
4)The good ol' boys sorting out sitting the HKATPL bridging course/exam
5)Finding enough guys who want to fill in the bottom half of the seniority list (the upper end will take whatever is shoved at them, and smile), and then having them deal with "The way we do things in Cathay"
then I am toast!
Personally, if I were the new Director Flight Operations, about to swing into power on the 1st Jan, I would be all over it. We get 2-300 UA type qualified guys, with 4 or so years left, bring them over. Even if we p!ss them off after 18 months (bidline you say, whats that?) and they all decide to go home collectively 2 years early, we still have the mongolian goat herders to crew the a/c. Oh that's right, they wouldn't dare **** on us, they still have 2 years left on $140k US.
You're right, I should be crapping myself!
Thanks for the heads-up