That's the problem. There never is a #1 choice that is the same choice for everyone. Every couple weeks a new thread is started where someone is asking what the best regional is to work for. This new thread will eventually turn into a ****ing match where what is important to one person will be touted as the reason everyone should go to his airline. As far as I can tell, the best thing is to determine which ones you don't want to work for (ie Republic) and then rank the ones left on what is important to you.

West Coast bases and fast upgrade time? Probably not SW. We have a long of long timers in our west coast bases and upgrade into anything west of DEN is still about 8 years. I get it. All regionals suck so we should just strive to suck the least. But it is getting hard to get new pilots. Regional pilots are getting hired at the majors. Regional airlines can adapt or go out of business. I feel SW is just trying to hold out long enough to pick up the scraps of the first one to go under.

But until the majors start putting contracts with airlines that can staff the flights, and not those that promised to do it cheap but can't find enough people, we will just see the whipsaw continue. And the airline that you thought was the best and devoted 5-10 years of your career may or may not be the right choice after those 5-10 years.