Originally Posted by
Excargodog
What I WAS advocating was that regional pilots educate themselves about what is going on at different majors because, yes, there IS a narrow window of flexibility for the first couple years at a major when junior people DO change employers (I know several former VX acquaintances who bailed from Alaska after they were acquired and other junior FOs who bailed to freight or to/from SWA. It really does happen. And I believe many if not most of the younger regional people ARE going to get an offer to a major once we are fully recovered, be that in two years or ten and - yeah, they are going to take it, because fir the vast majority any major will be better than any regional.
But at that time they will have all the things on their resume that let them get that job to begin with and then immediately add a new type-rating and major experience. And when that happens they will have the narrow window of opportunity - a few years at most - before seniority locks them in to the airline they are at for a career, or at least for as long as that airline exists.
But the world is changing and some business models are adapting better than others.
Yes, that was definitely a dilemma for many middle/bottom-tier major pilots (and even a few top-tier hires)... whether to keep reaching for the next rung or settle in for the long haul.
No one-size-fits-all answer, but I would say that almost any major pax job is pretty good gig so unless you're very young it's an iffy proposition to risk it all for something somewhat better.
Some majors honored new-hire classes for a month or so after covid (to protect those who had already resigned from previous gigs), while at the same they did NOT allow some of their own pilots to rescind resignations which had been dropped immediately after covid. There were some major (even some legacy) pilots who went from several years (or more) seniority to on the street with their top-tier class dates cancelled (and pools quickly flushed in some cases). The lucky ones: FDX/UPS new-hires.
Every move in this industry carries risk... training failures, background check issues, and of course straight-up bad timing due to black swans like covid and 9/11. Avoiding unnecessary lateral/diagonal moves will probably enhance your overall career stability, at some point it's just career risk vs. greed.