I'm a new hire starting class in mid Jan, looking for some advice if anyone can help me out or point me to the correct forum. I'm trying to put a list of aircraft/locations together in case I have options when I go to indoc. My goals are to fly as much as possible and upgrade as fast as possible, just looking for some insight as to what my best options are. Right now my #1,2,3 choices would be 175 ORD, 145 ORD, 145 LGA. I would like to be in DFW but the upgrade times are a lot longer from what I understand. My thinking is that the 175 will see movement over the next few years with the increasing fleet size but not sure if that is accurate. I read in this forum that there were some 175 only classes, is that still happening? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

Fly as much as possible and upgrade as fast as possible, your #1 and #2 choices should be, #1 175 in any base, and #2 175 in any base.
There is no #3.

Just don't forget that you will be upgrading into a 145 more likely than not.
The downside of flying as much as possible and upgrading as soon as possible is that you are too junior to hold a 175.

If he’s forced to upgrade to the 145, would he not be eligible to change equipment to the 175 once the vacancy opens? Which also begs the question — are forced upgrades going to be a continuing trend or are they projected to go away?

Forced upgrades will likely continue to be a thing for quite a while. Still losing 40ish CAs each month, that's about how many FO get their necessary hours each month. Just because Envoy hired a bunch of FO's two years ago, it doesn't mean they have been racking up the hours.

Yes, he can absolutely bid to 175, provided there is no seat lock (i.e. took the standing vacancy to upgrade asap, proffered on the bud etc). But the equipment to equipment CA bid is subject to 30% cap, i.e. if 145 CA bids to 175 and there are X vacancies available, no more than 0.3X of those go to existing CAs, rest to FOs.

Thanks for the insight. BigZ, you’re always super informative with your posts — much appreciated!

So first things first we can all agree that 175 ORD is what you want to start out with. From there the question is when you upgrade what equipment will you be on. Who knows really? The best guess is you would be forced or left with the 145 for the upgrade.

Thanks. Any idea what the reserve times are like at ORD and DFW for the 175? I'm guessing DFW would be a lot longer than ORD right?

Thanks for the insight. So basically 175 is my best option to get the hours to upgrade. Then at that point seniority is going to determine whether I upgrade in the 175 or 145 and will also determine my location i'm assuming. And I would go back to reserve as a CA? For instance, If I get the 175 to ORD, I could get the hours to upgrade and the first available upgrade slot is a 145 to LGA right? Sorry for the noob questions but appreciate the info.