I'm based in ORD. I've been with the company a little over 2 years. I bid right around #30 out of 80 FOs in the base, which allows me to hold 17 days off with 83 hours of pay for March. I'm a commuter so I maybe could do a little better than that if I lived in base and didn't have to worry about commutability. I don't plan to ever upgrade in ORD unless we see significant changes because there are a lot of people who left ORD in order to get an upgrade who would come back before me if there are ever CA openings again in ORD. So if you come here plan to commute once you upgrade. But as others and yourself have noted, the FO QOL can't be beat especially if you live in base.

My W-2 said around 44,000 last year (year 2 with the company). I had about half the year at 75 hours and about half between 75 and 85. So I don't work a lot. Consider also that I got additional per diem pay a little less than $5000 for the year.

The company doesn't have a lot to worry about right now for stability. We operate exclusively 170s which is the aircraft in demand from the mainline's perspective. Our operational performance is strong enough to make our higher costs worth it to them. We have a profitable business model now that the 145s are gone. This is the regional industry and things can change very fast, but we are probably one of the most stable regionals at the moment. For the next several years stability will be a direct result of staffing throughout the industry. Our staffing is not fantastic but it doesn't suck either. We can cover our own flying and and are routinely covering other carriers' flying at least out of the ORD base.

All in all it's not a bad first 121 gig. Your main concern is of course the long upgrade time at ORD and the fact that you may have to wait several months to get there as an FO. Other negatives include pay that's less than Endeavor's (like everyone else) and a scheduling department that will violate our contract without blinking an eye, particularly if you are on reserve. You will want to understand the contract and part 117 thoroughly to protect yourself from abuse.