Upgrade will be 2 to 3 years if the stars align perfectly- continued massive hiring along with lots of aircraft deliveries, lots (hundreds) of pilots retiring, and the continuation of the current captain to fo ration of about 2 to 1. Don't bank on upgrading fast, but at least you start much better than the regionals and the benefits are very, very good. You should be able to bank at least an extra $1000 a month in perdiem and overtime and if you get the Excel you can bank another $225 a month as an FO. You should be able to break 50K on 7 + 7 without trying too hard and if you are a real gogetter you should be able to break 60K first year if you stay on 18 day schedules and work the holidays and extend here and there. I was a 5th year jungle jet captain and while I will make less until I upgrade, I will blow away the regional pay as soon as I upgrade and with the benefits it is no comparison. CMH will probably have a lot of early shows day one, but that just means more overtime since you are on overtime for everything before 8am and anything over 9 hours of duty on day one.

The schedule will ALWAYS change from day to day while you are on duty. Don't come if that bothers you. I love the variety and I like changes, but not everyone is happy with that and there are definitely exairline guys here who complain about that- it blows my mind and ****es me off when I here that though since I can't believe anyone wouldn't know that is how it is before they ever even interview. So far it was a great change for me and with the uncertainty and decline in the airline industry right now I am really surprised that there aren't a lot more guys leaving for NJ.