Originally Posted by
phoenixc130
Wow! I'll be going for the MD88, should I get the choice.
If I'm making too big an assumption here, I apologize--but it appears you're military (based on username), and I suspect you may be carrying over the same misconception I (and more than a few other former .mil types) had:
Whatever plane you take out of indoc (either by choice or "what's left") has absolutely zero to do with what you can "upgrade" to when the time comes. Bid for what will give you the best QoL your first year (probably location; since NYC seems to be all that's going to newhire classes lately, "location" in this case means where you can likely move to on that same equipment within your 1-year seat lock). After that, you can bid out to better QoL (as defined by you, between pay/equipment/location, and among what's available).
"Upgrade" is equipment-agnostic: if you have a bid in for xxx base / xxx equipment / A [captain], and there's at least one unbid position by the time your seniority number gets a look*--congratulations, Captain! Your question seems to imply (and here's where I may be assuming--sorry again if I'm wrong) you want the Airbus, but you want the fast upgrade more. The two are in no way mutually exclusive--in fact, they've got nothing to do with one another. If the 'Bus is what you want as an FO, bid it. Your first chance at captain will come whenever it comes (right at two years for the NYC/M88/A at the moment, based on the latest AE results; the E190 may well skew that even more junior)--without any regard to what equipment you're on in the mean time. As an added bonus, your first-time captain bid will be awarded without regard to any seat lock you may have (though the remainder of the seat lock gets added to the two-year lock you incur for training).
Other than familiarity with the airplane (which should make training much easier), there's no requirement to be an FO on a particular airplane before becoming a captain on it. That's in stark contrast to most military assignments, at least it was in my corner of the AF....
Apologies again if I've misunderstood--I know this caught me by surprise when I was first transitioning from the USAF, so I thought you might be looking through the same prism I was....
[*and assuming you have the minimum Part 121 hours]