Flatspin,

That's good advice. I agree that with current hiring it appears many of the regionals won't have 2-3 year upgrades in the future. My priorities for picking a regional are
1. Stability- obvious
2. Subjective QOL feedback from places like this forum
3. Basing- I want to avoid east coast as a permanent base because $1600/month isn't much but it goes farther some places than others.
4. Pay - so far, factoring in current upgrade times, the average pay delta I've come up with is like $400 a month over 6 years. 3,000 vs 3,400 is not nearly enough for me to move my family someplace and/or risk anything. The cost of living variation between bases probably negates that number anyway.

I agree though, I won't be looking to take a job at a company I wouldn't want to work for for at least 7 years or until I'm 35. I know that is an eon in this buisness, I figure it's a moderate assumption. Either way, I've found that between hiring cycles and what jobs I'm actually offered I probably won't get much of a choice anyway...

 

Just a note on my prior post... That was before XJT made the announcement today... All bets are off there.

XJT might get verrry interesting.