Originally Posted by Work4life

I flew fighters but have a slight different perspective than others on here. I absolutely cherish flying fighters and friends I’ve made along the way but if your goal is the airlines via military flying, the quickest way is to fly heavies. Remember, it takes a lot of 1.2 sorties to accrue 1,500 hours. Very few fighter pilots have 1,500 hours, even the 20 year types unless you were deployed/flew a ton of combat missions. Just like everything in life, it’s all timing. HR/airlines look at numbers and as much as fighter time is pure quality hours, you have to meet the minimums, which usually isn’t very competitive. Many of my squadron buds spent some time at the regionals before moving onto the majors.
In regards to fighters being more sought after than heavies.....yes and no. I’ve had several friends track select into T-1s when they could’ve selected T-38s. Many went onto fly C-17s and KC-10s without any regrets. To each his own. As I’ve said before, I thoroughly enjoyed flying with my hair on fire but 10-12 hour days behind the desk and deploying to the sand box for months at a time grew old fast. Pick your poison and choose wisely.

Originally Posted by Sliceback

The quickest way to the majors is probably civilian and then join the ANG.

Active duty military is not the quickest path.