Pilots hired at UAL from the civ/RJ background come from all different Express/Connection paint jobs. UAL doesn't care. Being familiar with a certain carrier's ops MEANS NOTHING.

Commutair is a business, and a business needs to adapt/grow to make money and thrive. Especially in a competitive market place.

1) They were flying planes that UAL isn't interested in keeping around
2) Someone has to provide the 50 lift for CHEAPER than L-XJT can. At least as far as a bean counter/10K/quarterly/line item cost metric is concerned. Take the planes from XJT and give then to TransStates/Commutair.
3) "The fifty seater is dead!!!!!" Battle/rally cry of the ignorant/uniformed. It will ALWAYS have it's place, just not in the numbers of the post 9/11 scope relaxation era. UAL still sees a need for that equipment gage/capability.

The CPP is NOTHING more than a carrot dangled to retain pilots/attract new pilots to a company that sucks and has little to no future and doesn't offer much to a pilot trying to advance their career.

So you're right, don't bother going to a UAX carrier for a CPP program under the current circumstances, it's as mentioned, A JOKE.

Even if the entire bottom half of the XJT seniority list is able to interview and get "accepted" into the program, few if any will probably make it to UAL via the CPP. And just to give you an idea, ~50% on the seniority list at ERJ/XJT is a fall 2006 hire.

As mentioned, ExpressJet (legacy side) never would/will fly anything other than an ERJ. SkyWest holdings Corp has made sure of that.

As mentioned, I don't believe UAL has a plan for L-XJt to exist past Q1 2019 and neither does SKW holdings.