i usually give these to people i dont really like or my mother in law. They have a set cost. It’s not worth the hassle honestly.

So does a new hire FO that's eligible for direct entry captain still get all those bonuses plus the $145/hr? All of these bonus and pay programs are a bit confusing... What is the training pay now and what can a new hire who has previous 121 expect?

Literally 3 hrs. 1600 hrs TT all Part 91

as far as I know, we don’t tend to actually hire decs. We hire them as an FO, and then the next bid, generally before you finish training, will force you to upgrade. So more than likely you’ll get the same treatment/pay everyone else gets.
1st yr FO pay / 64hrs a month. Until finish training. Then you’d upgrade to the $145.

We are not currently hiring decs, but sometime in the summer of 2018 when we were, the process changed and they stopped choosing from the FO slot pool in indoc and were handed whatever was in the standing CA vacancy with year 1 CA pay. That's when we got that LOA about CA pay at award vs end of OE.

Are you forced to upgrade if you have the hours as a new hire or can you fly as an FO for a few months to gain some experience?

There are CURRENTLY no forced upgrades. Check back in about three weeks when the results of the next (should be announced in the next week or two) bid closes. There is currently a standing vacancy for 145 ORD Captain which means you MAY bid for that if you have the qualifying hours. Probably not a good idea with the fleet shrinking.

reserve list at least DCL looks a lot better. I guess pilot shortage has been magically solved without having to lower standards

fly with some new hire FOs fresh off IOE. Airmanship standards are way down.

ie. 1500 hour rule