When I was hired here (7 years ago this month) upgrade time was around 2-3 years. I thought that was fine because I was a 300 wonder and I knew I needed time to build experience before upgrade. I have since watched upgrade time go to infinity. That is really the only reason I have stayed. Just because upgrade time at blah blah regional is 6 months right now does not mean it will be 6 months after you get hired. My plan is to skip the left seat and just move on to a major. If that doesn't work within a few years I will probably leave aviation and do something else. I wish more of our lifers would move on but for the majority of them it just does not make sense and I don't blame them. They got stuck here just like FO's got stuck in the right seat. At least they can make ok money and get 4 weeks vacation while the company is still in business.