Why would that cause you to leave? The only way they can hire Captains off the street is if you (or other FOs) don't meet the qualifications to upgrade. Once you get the qualifications you will upgrade, and hold your seniority, i.e. the street Captains hired after you will still be junior to you on the Captains list.

The best sourced rumor I've heard is ORD opening July 1st with 30 something crews. Still no mention of any actual growth as a result. There will be a significant draw down of IAD and a small cut in STL but no plans to close anything.

Yeah they are doing two mock bids and then a master bid in June. I didn't hear any draw down in IAD. But I like IAD :-(

Im thinking the company would rather avoid hiring street captains. There are a handful of folks ready to upgrade when the last standing bid list came out...I just dont see anyone upgrading now. I heard 15 possible in April? Not sure.

Mock bids, master bids? what? Correct me if I'm wrong but the standing bid is a contract. If enough people "show interest" they don't have to pay to displace tons of pilots. They aren't testing the waters to see who is interested. Chicago is happening and they know when it is happening. They are all smart businessmen saving the company a shi ton of money by seeing who is "interested". If you are junior and want to be based in Chicago don't fall for this. Let them displace you and pay for your move. If you're senior and want Chicago it might be too risky to not put in a bid because the forced displacement might not get to your number. I'm happy for my Chicago peeps that finally get to be based at home!

They will not hire street captains unless we don't have the FOs to upgrade.

Mock bids are to determine how many crews are needed based on the flying they expect out of Chicago and other bases.

Not exactly. They know how many they need, but they don't know if pilots will go on their own or not.
The other purpose of mock bids is for everyone to see they would end up in seniority in base.

As a relatively senior FO, I agree...more cushion under us when we upgrade...EXCEPT, if the upgrades stop short of us reaching the current GOM upgrade times

I imagine this is what it looks like in the Dulles crew room now that the bids are open for ORD: