All anyone can do is try to educate himself/herself on the industry. This is a tough place to get a real unbiased/unemotional opinion.
Endeavor is tough right now and there's a lot of emotion getting in the way of reality. Any & all regionals suck period and will continue to suck until the real hiring begins.
In the end all anyone can do is make the best educated guess and stick with it.
Here's my take:
-I would select a regional based on where you want to live and it's bases, not the specific airline because commuting just sucks.
-The pay between them is close enough that I personally can't justify one over another.
-I would not make a lateral move even though I've been stuck in the right seat too long. To me, it's crazy to start all over and hope it'll rebound at another regional. (However, those that rolled the dice and went to compass made a good move but I wouldn't make that move today.)
-same applies to Mesa. Lots of a/c orders with the potential of movement but a lot of the classes are guys making lateral moves and that'll only go on for so long. A friend had JO walk into class and say the same thing: they're biggest hurdle is finding pilots and that'll dictate how fast things move.
-I think more regionals will merge creating the same internal issues we've had and Id rather not do it again.
-one positive about endeavor: we've come a long way and while it's not great, it's better than it was and I think it's going to get better. I do believe we can keep however many 200's as we can staff and scarring people away because we are ****ed about the last 2 years is stupid. Any growth we have is good for everyone. Delta has done a lot and you need to follow the money, not emotions to see what's happening. I don't think we'll ever see a flow but my money is that they'll do something like a "b scale" and improve the contract before they lose everything. It's cheaper for them to bump us in pay than have their own guys do it. The regionals will be a farm team for their major counterpart and they'll go to the flt schools get the people in the seats and they'll eventually pull them up to the mothership while they hire their NASA guys directly into the queen of the fleet....(md-88)