This discussion may be taking place on another thread. If so, please direct me there. I've seen it discussed inside other threads, but not in its own dedicated thread.

I'm at a point with my current regional where it is obvious that I will never upgrade due to stagnation and shrinking. However, after 7+ years, I enjoy decent QOL with most weekends and holidays off, crediting 85-90+ hours a month, with pay topping out at $47 an hour, and several hundred people below me. That being said there are regionals out there now where pilots with current 121 time and meeting upgrade mins, are upgrading out of IOE. That being said, they have to sit on reserve for a long time as other pilots senior to them become eligible for upgrade. But being that we are in the airline industry, we all know that can change in a second.

I know of quite a few FOs who have been hired at Legacies and LCCs without PIC time, and some with no internal recs or anything else outstanding on their resume. We are all aware of the upcoming retirements. Every single Legacy and LCC will need so many pilots in the next few years, that no one should have trouble getting a job. Baring any unforeseen incident of course.

The question is, should pilots go after an upgrade at another airline to get ahead of other pilots that don't have PIC time; if they won't have the opportunity to upgrade at their current job? Is it worth the hit in QOL for not much more money, loss of 3 weeks vacation, and the risk of starting over at another regional with an almost instantaneous upgrade? All of us want to get to where we want to be at the beginning, or at lease the middle of this wave. No one wants to be furlough bait or miss out on being able to hold good schedules as captains making 10 of thousands more dollars a year, years earlier in their career, or worse never get out of the regionals.

Its a tough question to answer. I'm hoping some of you out there would have some input on this. Not just for me, but for a lot of other pilots at stagnant and dying regionals who may be wondering the same thing. Stay and wait and risk being out of a job completely, or take the risk of leaving and go for the upgrade?