Oh please. It's all about luck and timing. The shining regional star of today may have 10 year upgrades or furloughs tomorrow, not to mention what might happen at the major level. You might be desensitized to everyone who has tried to convince you to DO IT NOW and DO IT FAST, but seeing that you don't really understand the industry yet, I'd say wait 5-10 years before commenting on this and then get back to us...

You are right though, there are ways to make it work. Many people try to take what they figure is the "easy" route and get a loan and get it done, but it ends up harming them far more in the long run, trying for 10, 15 or more years to pay off loans struggling on regional pay, all the while throwing away the ability to start saving money or buy a house in a reasonable amount of time. If you work on the ratings while staying out of debt, you'll end up 10 years ahead in life, rather than 2 or 3 years faster at the airline. Seniority doesn't matter for **** when you have to change airlines or something happens that stalls out the movement. QOL means a lot more than seniority, and if huge massive retirements happen due to age 65, they'll continue to happen and people will flow anyways, whether it's a year from now, 5 or 10 or more...