The wave will last as long as management makes a job at Envoy attractive, and the airline is able to hire. That could be years if you look at how many retirements are going to occur at AA, and all of the majors. Or it could be short lived, due to a shortage of candidates. Nobody really knows. However, our movement is due to guaranteed attrition off the top due to flow, not aircraft fleet growth.

As far as seniority goes, you only accrue company seniority if you join the pipeline program (used for 401k, vacation, i.e. benefits that are not unique to being a pilot). You will not accrue bidding seniority as part of the pipeline program. Your bidding seniority will only be determined by your first day of indoc at Envoy.

As for flying the 175, a jet is a jet. However, our FO's are not allowed to bid to transfer aircraft currently, so if you get hired into the 175, you may end of with significantly better QOL than an FO stuck on another airframe.

I believe you get a bigger sign on bonus if you join the pipeline program. And you get AA flight benefits as a flight instructor.

Just as a side note for pilots planning on commuting while at the regionals, the AA flight benefits and wholly owned jumpseat priority can be a big help. I commute on a route with a lot of full AA and US Airways flights, with a lot of other commuters. AA and Airways pilots go ahead of me for the jumpseat, but there are plenty of times where I've made it home and non-wholly owned pilots have been left behind. QOL here isn't the best right now, but knowing I have a good shot at getting home removes a lot of the stress of commuting.