Aren't you a Mesa pilot? You have been asking questions on the Envoy board since December, what took you so long to make the move? Did they give you an interview or just the logbook review?

I agree that a lot of the rumors are wishful thinking, and the recruiters will tell you an overly positive story. Envoy is one of the better regional airlines and has a good training program, but it's still a regional. You will get better QOL when you make it to the legacies and LCCs. I was jealous jumpseating recently when the AA pilots showed me their schedules. I don't think a merger with AA is likely. ALPA has had meetings about the possibility to show solidarity, but ALPA isn't the one making the decision. It isn't just about the pilots, the AA wholly owned have many cheaper labor groups than mainline and it would cost a lot of money to incorporate all of them. Flow to AA is currently 6-7 years but that can easily change. It's certainly a good backup plan. Merging with Piedmont is a possibility down the road but likely while they are flying E145s.

I understood that most of the Spirit pilots facing furlough were low time pilots who haven't been flying much on reserve. For there to be a big exodus from Spirit to the regionals with hiring bonuses being phased out things would have to be very grim there. Or maybe enough jumped to cause Envoy to phase out the signing bonus? Spirit has great scheduling, I am sure Envoy's scheduling will be disappointing. Scheduling is a lot better than I remember it being at Mesa 16 years ago, especially for the FOs holding hard lines and trading trips after 3-6 months on reserve. But your experience will depend on your seat, base, relative seniority, and whether you live in base. It's always better for those who live in base and have seniority, just not as good as Spirit.