Couple of things. Legacy pay is NOT back to pre-9/11 levels. DAL is the highest paid outside FedEx/UPS and my pay is 25% lower than 2000. The Regional model is DOA. Flying at Delta is already being shifted from DCI back to mainline. It will only accelerate. Within 5-7 years DCI as we know it will cease to exist and I too see an ab-intio type hiring program. Your 2 year time table is aggressive but doable at the right school. Go to a part 141 academy in Florida where the weather is good enough to fly 2 lessons a day, everyday. I got all my ratings that route in 3 months & 3 weeks. Then CFI full time at an academy with a steady supply of students. When you don't have a lesson, then tow banners., volunteer for the Civil Air Patrol, be a hangar rat and volunteer to ferry aircraft, sit in the right seat as a safety pilot...and log everything. If you are aggressive you can be at a regional in UNDER two years.
Take the disgruntled naysayers with a grain of salt. The last decade of Regional pilots got hit by a Mack truck with the perfect storm of Age 65 and the second worst recession since the Great Depression. The last few years has been the anomaly not the norm. Now the worm has turned in OUR favor with age 65 retirements hitting, ATP rules and far 117....all at the same time. Over the past month 10,000 Regional pilots, and rightly so, have realized the ball is in thier court and have voted resoundingly NO to further concessions & whipsaw. Management may threaten all they want but there's no place to transfer the flying...the jig is up.
You are hitting the industry at the best possible time. I think you'll be at a Regional by Jan 16. Upgrade by 17 and at a major by 2018.
Even though we are still recovering from 9/11, it's still a great career. I think that by the time you get to a major we will be back to pre 9/11 wages. It will only go up from there. This is my 8th year at DAL and I'll break $200k this year.
Don't sit back and go with the flow. Be proactive with your career planning and make strategic decisions. Don't be afraid to move and DON'T commute. Your QOL will be superior, you'll make more $$ and have time to go visit family/friends on YOUR terms.
Best of luck!