Don't know about XJ, but when we were picking up new CRJs that ACA was receiving, the factory trips were pretty much reserved for management pilots.

The company conducted "acceptance" flights when we got a new RJ in YUL. This flight was about 1.5-2.0 hours in length and put the plane through the full "paces" of operation. Vmo/Mmo dives, GPWS, stall tests, the works. Since most line pilots weren't trained as company test pilots (they could volunteer, but most didnt), they couldn't do the flights.

I did have the opportunity to pick a plane up once (a managment team did the acceptance flight for our plane and one other that was delivered at the same time... we flew one back, they flew the other), but when I was assigned that particular trip, it was on a RSV day that I had picked up.