Unless someone was still really young, say 23-25, I could not reconmend anyone going to the regionals unless you have no bills or a sugar mama...

I was lucky and got in at 22 and had 6000+ hrs before I was 30, which made it easier to move on to other better paying jobs. Made just enough for beer money and some food. But I was still 7 years away from kids, marriage, mortgages etc....If you have a family,especially with kids, think really hard about it..

There are just too many negatives that can happen that will derail your plans of better pay in the future. At which point you may be faced with the thought of having to start over again at another regional, unless a company like Netjets is hiring, but it appears that safety net has a hole in it also.