Well if you are looking strictly at upgrade, mesaba seems to be better AT THE PRESENT. Who knows what could happen when YOU get hired. There are a lot of 6-7-8 year FO's at AE, whereas the junior capt at mesaba is 3 right now. But as I stated, this shows what the trend was 7 years ago for AE, and 3 years ago for Mesaba. Someone hired today could see 2, or could see 10, you never know what could happen. AE's upgrades are slowly coming down, but nobody knows how fast or how much... Apply to both, and see who calls first, neither would be a bad option