TSRAGR,
A tough call, no doubt. And some great advice here from the other posters.
I have seen three hiring booms in the airlines while I was active duty. First was right after the Gulf War. Lots of my bro's jumped then. Next was the mid/late 90's. Most of the rest left then that didn't in the early 90's. And the third is just cranking up now.
The dudes that left in the late 90's got a beating, but kept their seniority. Most, except one, are back in their airline jobs. Many are in the left seat (save a few, most left seaters are from the early 90's group). Some of the late 90's group went to the guard/reserves to finish out and get enough points to gain retirement, then accepted return offers back to their furloughed airline.
I'm a single seat guy with stats pretty much the same as Cricket. I decided to stay in until about the 22 year point. I retired when there was no hiring going on. Even a good friend, USAF TPS grad and Astronaut, had a hard time getting hired during the lost decade.
For me having the retirement has given me flexibility. It is something that pretty much gets deposited in my account for pretty much the rest of my life - unless something drastic happens, then we are all effed....Thus the reason I can soak up the putrid regional pilot pay and perhaps, someday, first year airline pay. I ended up much like CODS. I had a really good contracting gig post retirement. Now I've decided to give the airlines another go. I'm at a regional now flying CRJ's.
Someone mentioned seniority. You will live and die by it in this business as I am coming to find out. Like it or not, this is not a merit based system. So, the questions I think to ask are: 1)How many dudes/dudettes are you willing to let get in ahead of you on the seniority list at airline X, and 2)Is being a member of the check-of-the-month club worth giving up on question #1.
No one knows what will happen, but as I indicated earlier, that check every month makes the stress level a bit lower (see flexibility).
Best of luck to you, not an easy decision to make. But as others have said, your not the first or the last to be in that position.