^^^^THAT^^^

Although much depends upon you. The legacy retirement wave is only ramping up, but it will be creating in about three or four years. You can take some risk, hurry, and perhaps still be on the leading edge of it, or you can do the slow and steady way and get on somewhere where you will (POSSIBLY) flow to a legacy seven or eight years from now and forever be behind those who were a few months or years quicker off the mark.

The BEST regionals, IMHO, are those that run a little lean and may not have the best QOL but have good efficient training, short reserve times, and then proceed to fly your butt off averaging the maximum 83.3 hours of FLYING you can legally average so you can acquire 1000 hours of 121 SIC time, and THEN will permit you to PROMPTLY upgrade and get 1000 hours of 121 TPIC. Even better, the regional should have a domicile you can get (both as an FO AND as a captain) within a two hour drive from wherever you intend to live.

Because that 1000 hrs of TPIC is the coin of the realm that will get you on at a desirable major/legacy. The sooner you get it, the better. And yes, right now the AA wholly owneds are touting flow and United Express is talking about CPP and Endeavor is talking DGI and Horizon is talking their Pathways program. And if you were within a couple of years of flowing, that might even be important, but you aren’t, and seven years is an eternity in this business. The hot regionals today might not even exist then, and flow programs of all kind can come and go. Even at the major/legacy level contracts can be broken and payscales and pensions can be reneged upon (through bankruptcy - just ask a Delta pilot or Alaska pilot).

Best bet. Do what you can to expedite getting ATP qualified and get in the game, then get hired somewhere you can live near your domicile and fly your butt off. If that company has a flow it MIGHT be helpful, but don’t depend on it. Get apps out to every major as soon as you have 1000 SIC and update them every two weeks until you get the call.