I just have a question and I wanted to get some opinions on the matter. I work for a regional right now, which is looking at upgrade times of 3-5 years, partially due to a very conservative upgrade policy, and partially because of the industry. I am also about 20% of the way up on the seniority list there. I have a chance to fly with another company as a military contractor, flying King Air 90's and 200's. Their upgrade time is 6-12 months, depending on your total time and their needs.

So my question is this, which time is going to be more attractive to a major airline, once they start hiring: 2000-3000 part 121 SIC in a Dash 8, or 1000 part 121 SIC and 1000-2000 part 91 PIC? By the way, I call the King Air time part 91 for lack of a better term. I'm not sure what military contractors operate under.

My final goal is to work for a major, but looking ahead to 3-5 years of barely making ends meet is discouraging. Is it really that much tougher to get into a major from outside the part 121 world?