I've never heard of this ' wish to avoid ' option in bidding systems - I suppose because I've never worked in a company large enough to need / merit / have bidding systems....
I think most US airlines have this option these days. It probably saves a few confrontations each month.
Another method that some airlines use is having first officer bids close a couple of days after the captains' lines are awarded.
And I blame human resources and other things which keep good pilots out of the cockpit and put marginal pilots into the cockpit.
This. This is the elephant in the room, in a couple of crashes lately
And, in politically correct America, I don't think the NTSB can call for raised hiring and training standards because that would be unfair to people who don't have good flying skills. Remember the late RS's training record before being hired at FedEx?
Similarly, background checks are considered to have a disparate impact against some folks with poor employment and arrest records. Auburn Calloway had been fired by Gulf Air (the one in Biloxi, Mississippi) and Tigers before going to work at FedEx.
Any call for raised standards will be criticized in some quarters as bigoted, unfair and exclusionary.
As Huck says, it is the elephant in the room that you can't mention.
