go where you can upgrade the fastest, then consider what base you can hold. Don't waste your time at some regional with a "nice contract". A lot of the compensation doesn't matter if you are stuck as an FO and never get CA time or pay....

This right here is a major reason why our industry is the massive mess that it is.

Nailed it, exactly!

I, of course, want pay and benefits to be better, but what would I be willing to give up for those benefits? What is more valuable to me? What is more valuable to you?

The costs of commuting can really add up, and I would rather have an extra 4-6 days a month off and not commuting back and forth to base. Commuting sucks, especially when on reserve. Reserve on it's own sucks quite a bit as well. I would NOT want a job where I had to do either, if I had my choice.

I think that is more of what the previous post was talking about. A regional is not a career destination, and you need to choose a place that best suits your needs.

As my username suggests, I live in CLT and always have. I do not want to live anywhere else. I chose my airline partly based on the base. I could most likely have gone to a regional that payed slightly more money, and in turn I would have easily spent a couple thousand dollars a year on a crash pad, groceries, car, etc... I also could have found somewhere that I could have had a couple more days off a month, but would have spent an extra 6 days a month commuting. It is like spending a dollar to save a dime.

I want to upgrade and get out of the regionals. Sure, I could have gone to somewhere with better work rules, but I would have spent an extra 5 years there before I upgraded.

It sucks that you have to choose between these things, but this is not a perfect world. There is no perfect regional, but rather you are left to pick the poison that taste the best.

Thanks for expounding on my post. This is what I am talking about.