Probably because they realized that a 5-7,000TT FO who has spent almost a decade at his/her dying regional is no different in quality than a 4,000TT CA at a regional that experienced random growth.

Anyways, very few FO's are getting hired. And most of the ones who have were former United/CAL interns or had very high level connections. The nepotism factor is way down compared to years ago, but I think some still exists. I remember one guy posted on here talking about having something like 2,500TT who got hired very early on.

If I could go back in time, I would have gone to Eagle, gotten a flow-through, and been at AA by now. Or quit and gone to Compass when they started up, etc. Hindsight is 20/20.