Originally Posted by
AboveAndBeyond
That is my point.
There are FOs at regionals that are getting picked up by those places. A buddy is going to JetBlue with less than 3000 hours TT and zero TPIC, and no military time. Just regional FO time.
There are lots of captains at regionals that are going to those places every month. My regional lost over a dozen to Delta in the last 3 months, and none of them have more than 5 years at a regional. Go to a regional with 1500 hours, spend 2 years as an FO, 2 years as a captain. Spend a few months TDYd to teach ground school, or get your LCA letter, or move to the sims. In 4 years, you will have 4500+ total time, 1000+ TPIC in a 121 jet, and you will be ahead of anyone that spent 4 years at AMF.
At that point, if you wanted to work at an ULCC or ACMI, you could choose any one that you want. They will all take you.
Along that same logic, two years at AMF and two years at an LCC will get you to the same place. As stated before, if there are half a dozen ways to end up at the same end goal, it all comes down to lifestyle choices. Whichever path is going to allow you to most enjoy going to work every day is the path you should choose.