This. Fastest way for a WO FO to get to AA is through Spirit.

This flow back to an aa wo seems backwards. The pay rate doesn’t justify it. As an ulcc fo your second year pay is that much higher than an aa w/o that’s it averages out to equal the same thing and then only goes up from there. Captain upgrades at an ulcc aren’t 10 yrs out. At most it’s just a couple years and you’ll make more than the regionals. The pay schedule really only applies to first year fos that are currently rated higher than only spirit at this point since frontier increased their pay to match envoy. It only really makes sense for retaining fos who go on to become captain rather than taking a more than 50% payout to go to an ulcc. The yearly increase schedule is better at ulcc so just because you might make the jump and make more for one year you’ll quickly be out paced by more seniority at an ulcc

I’m not saying it is worth it. See my post above, but your understanding of the pay at WOs isn’t quite complete. If you get hired at a WO with more than 750 hours of 121 flight time, you will be paid at the captain rate, and they are giving “years of service” credit. So if you have 800 hours and two years 121, you will be paid as a 3rd year captain… as an FO. You will also likely be able to upgrade soon after getting 950 hours, so if the actual PIC time is what you’re after it is a relatively quick and reasonably well paying way to get it, although your QOL will suffer immensely.

What about the guys & gal FOs already at the AA WOs? Is it worth leaving to spirit & frontier at this point? With the pay the way it is, and the insane increase at 750 121 hours? Also keeping in mind that TPIC isn't quite king like it was just a year ago.

Is there much value in an airbus type rating?

Doesn’t the new scale cap put at year 3 for fo or captain? If I remember correctly that is and a 2nd year fo at spirit makes roughly $40 less. Assuming you can upgrade year 3 at spirit you’re now ahead of anything envoy can pay you. The people maybe questioning it are going to be first year new hire fos at spirit. If you’re coming up on a year and about to roll over to year 2 it doesn’t seem economical. You’ll gain $40 more an hour for a year, assuming the best case scenario that you get the captain pay. But then the following year you’ll give up $60/hr because you didn’t stay and upgrade with spirit. All this assuming you even have to stay for that long if your plan is ultimately to go to a legacy.

The whole point to the pay increase was to keep senior people. I’d say it’s worth it to stick around till you can get a major you prefer. Type is definitely more valuable than tpic but still not that important.

If you want to go to United or Delta stay at the WO, upgrade and gtfo. If you want to go to AA, leave the WO now.

At least from what an AA recruiter told a buddy, they want TPIC. He seemed to think it was thee most valuable item on his resume and the excuse the AA recruiter gave was that upgrades will be happening quickly and they want people with TPIC time ready to go.

Someone with tpic in a 175 does nothing when you’re going to a 737 or a320. Not sure what upgrading to ca requires but I’m willing to bet if anything would lead to quicker upgrade it would be time in type over tpic time at a regional. I could be very wrong. But by the time you get to a legacy you’re legally ca eligible. So the only thing hold back an upgrade would be company policy and seniority.

Legacy carriers have always (traditionally) looked for candidates with PIC experience. Acting as PIC gives you experience in decision making and airmanship. Having a clean record as a PIC demonstrates some level of success in mastering those skills (or an immense amount of dumb luck).

There are plenty of candidates now getting through with no PIC, but they are still by far the minority.