I just happened to save last month's equipment bids so after some review, I have slightly more up-to-date advice.

Eagle does allow you to pick your base at the time of interview and change that choice up until the first 5 min of class. Apparently they are telling people it will be a wait for LA, but it wasn't an issue when I went through.

If you want to take ORD outright, you can but you do risk getting the CRJ and the QOL is less than desirable for me personally (again, if you live in Chicago and like spending time at home, its perfect). However, there were 9 openings for CRJ FOs in DFW last month which supports rumors that all of the CRJs are going to DFW. It seems like a long-shot to me but at one point they moved them all to ORD only to split them up again soon there after. They really can't decide what to do with only having 25.

As of Feb. there are only 30 lines and 47 FOs on the CRJ in ORD with no openings for internal transfers to that seat so it is unlikely that they will send newhires to the CRJ at ORD. There are currently 99+ openings for EMJ FOs at ORD and that past few classes indicate that the trend is for all ORD newhires to go to the EMJ.

That being said, if you want to be in Chicago on the EMJ, you can go to BOS or LGA and you are assured an EMJ class. Once you're in the door you can xfer to ORD and you will get it. With the 99+ openings its about as certain as anything can be in this industry (99+ means that even if they lifted the 1yr seat-lock on all of the T-prop drivers, you would still have an opening since we aren't allowed to transfer unless it is an advancement in pay (no prop to prop, jet to jet, or jet to prop...say that 3 times fast...you can only go from a prop to a jet)). If you have any specific questions, pm me. Hope this clears some of this mess up