..Always best to get the job actually offered to you and allow your mind to make that final decision there IMHO

Think about what people are saying here. A majority of people are telling you not to go to ASA. How many people said not to go to Air Tran? The airline that nobody wants to go to is probably your best bet right now, as we are in bad times. The truth is, go where you want, nobody knows. If you want to fly passengers around then go to ASA, the travel benefits are a plus too, no matter how bad people tell you they are.

Are they really having people turn them down?

Yup!

To the OP, I think a few really important questions are:

1. How long do you see yourself staying at your current gig if you turn down ASA? By that I mean do you have good potential to increase your earnings down the road? Annual pay increases? Time off, vacation etc? Or is this only a stepping stone that you want to get out of ASAP?

2. How many hours are you building a year? If you are low time (like you are) and only building 250 hours a year... that is a big deal. In 4 years you will now be at 1900 hours, where if you go to ASA, in 4 years you could potentially be somewhere near and below 4900 hours (a more realistic number would be around 4200 hours). I understand the difference in you logging PIC time vs SIC, but the total time is still important I think.

I would also add that if you're getting a fair amount of time at your current gig, stay with it. PIC time, jet time, multiple types, all these things make you very marketable. Upgrades at the regionals could potentially be fairly long up to 2014ish (if you went to ASA today, the combined list will put almost 2100 pilots ahead of you for upgrade, with no huge movement likely til the end of 2012) and by 2016 or so the majors will likely be hiring regional guys and gals out of the right seat (reference 99/00). Point being that 4 more years with your company will give you much more valuable time than 3000 SIC in a CRJ, all my subjective opinion though.

I agree. I am really curious how much time the OP is getting at his current gig. The multiple type ratings would look great on a resume too.

So ASA is getting turned because it sounds like pilots are finally saying enough is enough.

And the uncertainty mentioned above with the merger can't be helping.

I wonder if Eagle has the same problem.

I don't know who is in charge of hiring at ASA, but I had my stuff walked in by two different people and have several recommendations on AirlineApps from people at ASA. I have more than the min. requirements and current, but yet they call an hire guys that a) either live in ATL or b) haven't touched a plane in months or years and don't even meet the requirements.

I'm confused and don't understand airline hiring practices, and I never will.