Originally Posted by OnCenterline

He makes $40K, but the actual value of his compensation is much higher than that due to the retirement and insurance, not to mention job security. What is that worth?

But, the OP is 46, and as another poster pointed out, if he got hired today at a regional, he'd be at least 3-5 years from being competitive at a major if all goes well--sooner if he really gets lucky. That makes him 50-52 years old minimum when he starts, giving him less than 15 years.

If it doesn't work that way, the alternative is he gets on with a regional, upgrades, and stays there, making decent money as an RJ captain. If he's lucky, that regional is around to the end of his career (19 more years). If he's not so lucky, that regional fades away or is merged.

D5Pilot, if I were you, I'd think this through pretty extensively. I think I'd stay where you are. If you retire at 55, you can still jump into a regional, probably with your government health insurance, and with that 3/4 pension you mentioned. You'll see captain on an RJ, and you might even get hired at a major for a couple of years. On the retirement alone, you need to do the math to figure out how much money you need to put away just to make up the money you will lose on your pension.

Further, I think if you wait, regional pay will go up. That's my opinion, but I could be wrong.