The most common misconception about Envoy (or any airline, for that matter) is that length of time to upgrade is dependant on base/equipment you have as an FO. It's not. It's based purely on seniority, as you can upgrade as soon as your seniority can hold it. You might switch your base and/or equipment when you upgrade, but just because you are DFW 175 FO doesn't mean you're going to upgrade any faster or slower than a LGA 145 FO. If you are senior to that guy, you will upgrade faster than him, assuming you both bid all captain statuses. Now, all that being said, as you mentioned - you won't be able to upgrade until you have 1000 121 time. The fastest way to do that, in my opinion, is to get an equipment/base combination that will get you to lineholder status as quickly as possible. Also, you want a base that has lines with a high number of days off. This way you can pick up a high amount of OT on your days off. On reserve, you're going to average less 70 hours per month, and since all reserve lines only have 11 days off, that only leaves you 3 days to pick up OT (you are required to have at least 8 days off). If you can manage to get an 80 hour, 15 day off line, you will manage to get pretty close to the maximum hours every month. Even if you get a low time line, you should be able to trip-trade into higher value trips. The Quick Trade app just became your new best friend
. All things considered, I think ORD 145 is your best bet for maximizing hours. CRJ right now has low credit trips with low days off. In LGA and MIA, you're going to have trouble picking up OT, however, you can pick up OT in ANY base on the same equipment. In DFW I think you might be on reserve longer than you want. I have no freaking clue about the 175, so hopefully someone else can chime in on that. At any rate, good luck and one piece of advice: don't burn yourself out. It's easy to do, and in many cases more detrimental to your career than "getting somewhere fast."