Originally Posted by Excargodog

The advice is directed AT those people trying to get their first 121 experience. But even so, putting in applications at F9, B6, NK, AS, and WN costs nothing. And if the alternative is waiting 4-6 months for a regional class date ( and one that may well slip) to become the bottom guy on reserve at a regional still not getting 121 hours very fast, it’s a viable path.

And while management may indeed “be getting wise to this” it’s not like they have a lot of options or can avoid the risk. With legacy retirements as they are, there WILL be a drain from other 121 operations, and most legacies would actually prefer to hire pilots away from their LCC/ULCC competitors than they would cannibalize their own regional feed, so however “wise” F9 management may be, they are still going to lose experienced FOs to the legacies.

Take a look at NKs recent TA. Everyone got increases, but those increases weren’t evenly distributed. They were greatest percentage wise at the year 3 and 4 FO level, because if they can retain FOs past that point they will soon be CA’s making (counting 401k DC) over $300k a year, after which the ‘golden handcuff’ effect comes into being and it becomes a lot harder to justify jumping to a $100k legacy first year FO slot.

Conversely, most regionals are doing just the opposite, freezing FO payscales after four years to create a situation where they are trying to compel regional upgrade to regional CA.

So I think the advice is still good. If you have your choice of gathering 121 SIC hours at a place flying CRJs and/or ERJs or gathering those 121 hours quicker in 737/320s you’d be a fool to chose the former.