135 or 121 to get to majors?
 

Anyone know if DAL, AA, SWA, etc prefer to see 121 time or is TPIC at 135 just as good? Thanks!

You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how this works. You need to fly with and befriend someone who then gets a job at one of those companies. That person will walk your stuff in. It is not about where you have worked it is about who you know that works where you want to.

That being said at a 121 regional you will fly with and meet tons of people.

Is there still such a thing as a walk-in at a Major?

Well Done
 

I agree ! However I would like to add that it helps to get hired on at a regional where pilots are advancing rapidly and have a history of being picked up at the majors. Getting stuck in the right seat at Horizon Air or other dead regionals is a career killer.

SH

easier said than done, what moves today may not tomorrow

So SH, what's your deffinition of 'advancing rapidly' these days? Which regionals have a good history with getting picked up?

Advancing rapidly typically meant 2-3 year upgrades, maybe even less.

But going forward, you might be lucky to see 5 year upgrades.

I don't know of any regional which confers a hiring advantage for the majors, it's more about the individual. I suspect some bottom feeders may have poor upward mobility, but that's because they have more than their fair share of marginal pilots.

Upgrade and out
 

My perspective is that if you are with a regional that has a lot of young pilots upgrading and then moving on they create a trail for others to follow. However if you are at a stick in the mud regional with slow upgrade the pipeline shuts down. Horizon Air comes to mind.

Skyhigh

If you are doing alright financially, and don't need to make a lot initially, Ameriflight is a really fast way to get building TPIC.

135 schedule is absolute crap, but it pays better than a 121 regional (generally).

To answer your question though, airlines hire people from both 121 and 135, but there are usually more 121 guys in new hire classes. That is probably because people who want to go airlines typically go 121 regionals, where-as people who want to go 135/91 typically go 135.

They prefer USAF/USN pilots with a couple of thousand hours of fighter or heavy jet PIC time (75% of the hiring in the early '80s). TPS grads with a Space Shuttle flight or two ("Hoot" Gibson and Byron Lichtenberg at SWA) are also liked. What they get is another matter entirely.

GF