I totally get your point but to be honest 'in reality' we are not a separate airline any more. How do we operate in that case with no Ops/Crew Control/Marketing/Planning etc? All those departments are in CX. The old 'you're a separate airline' argument doesn't really hold water that well anymore.
I've been turning up for flights and had CX staff with a one or two years of service in CX ahead of me for years. I used to think 'that's the way it is, I'm not CX' but that argument doesn't really look the same 10 years in to CX ownership of KA, things are changing. We've been on the receiving end of CX changes ourselves in the past: Our only European base summarily moved to CX years ago and access to that base closed down. Change hasn't always been positive for KA and this latest one didn't come free, some of us had to pay for it, otherwise we would be behind KA pilots who joined last month! What choice is that?!
What should have happened is that in 2006 (and the AOA should have listened to the DPA a little more closely) is that we should have been given ghost CX seniority numbers (if only for staff travel) in case anything like this happened in the future and all new joiners to CX made aware of the fact. I recall it was almost impossible for CX or the AOA to stomach the suggestion from the DPA at the time.
The last thing anybody in KA wants is to be at odds with our mates and colleagues in CX.
In 'proper' airlines the seniority lists would have been merged or a mechanism for avoiding situations like this put in place. Now the company have done it for us as far as staff travel goes. I wonder what's next?