Originally Posted by
Skyvector
You want a straight answer or are you just trying to be cute? If I was a new-hire who was real giddy about becoming an airline pilot and wanted to chase quickie upgrades without understanding ANYTHING else about how airlines work, I would run not walk to PSA.
However, if I was a smart new-hire....someone who not only analyzes information but listens to airline pilots who have been in the 121 world since the time they were probably still in elementary school, and if I was able to look beyond just the palm of my hand....here are the airlines I would consider..
IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER AT ALL....THIS IS NOT A BEST TO WORSE RANKING:
Envoy
Piedmont
SkyWest
Compass
and if I lived in one of their bases: ExpressJet.
Why those airlines? First, let's get one thing out of the way. No Regional has the mainline style QOL we all want. Regardless of what Regional you go to you will get abused in one way or another. One Regional is better in one area of their contract while worse in the other.
But averaging it all together, the airlines cited above have the best QOL/contract/protections. You can go to those airlines, keep your head down, do your job, fly your trips, and go home and be perfectly happy. It's not that simple at many other Regionals...for example Republic. Pilots at Republic are abused beyond words and their QOL is extremely low even by Regional standards.
There are a handful of other reasons why the airlines above are the best choices. Some reasons are important to one group of people while not so important to others. You have to take all the information in and decide for yourself.
Let me just point out one thing: Flow. Envoy and Piedmont have it. They are the only Regionals of all the Regionals that have it. As we move forward the most streamlined way of getting to a mainline carrier without having to stop at the LCCs first will be via a flow. Period. We have talked about this ad nauseam on this forum so I won't get into it again. But keep in mind that United alone has 10,000+ applications currently on file. That includes all LCC pilots with Airbus type ratings and military pilots. Delta has even more applications. Where do you sit on that list? PIC time in an RJ won't get you anywhere any sooner except to a place like Spirit or Virgin.
No not trying to be cute or sarcastic. Thank you for your post I believe that any new hire reading it can find it informational rather than a seeing nothing but a bash fest. I tip my hat to you. Now if everyone can get back into the professional level that Skyvector just displayed and post relative and factual information pertaining to their own airline this thread can be a decent place to get information from again. Of course this not to say that you shouldn't post on another airline thread as long as we can have a professional discussion aimed at trying to help those new to 121 wishing to gain a bit of knowledge or to have our own discussion in regards to the industry in general.