Tourist to be fair on this one - and I am one of the hold pool guys who is wanting to take advantage of this situation and get a long haul slot - I actually fully agree with Bex. If a type rated guy (and regardless of their number of hours on type) is coming in and taking a slot ahead of someone who's now completed their engagement freeze and making an aspirational bid for long haul then (possibly) fair enough. But this is potentially not what is going on.
You could have two guys with the same type rating (or not, neither is type rated on the fleet being recruited for - it doesn't matter) and the same number of hours, the only difference being one is a DEP and one is someone who is a company employee and has served the company for five years. Both applying for a long haul slot. The external guy gets it.
Are you seriously telling me you'd be happy with that or that anyone in any other industry or workplace would be happy if the external (and equal) candidate denies someone in the company their promotion???
Really???