You are relatively low time imho. I was 5000 hour+/10 years AD when I got my legacy job, zero regional.

I’d follow the advice you are getting from others, and grow some patience........

These days I’ve seen mil pilots with less than 2k hrs TT get hired at legacies. I guess it just depends on the hours

Yeah, all else being equal, he's probably in the ballpark. Unless there's something holding him back, he's probably better off building 121 time and being available for interview prep/interviews at this point.

I would say 5,000 is actually pretty high time for most mil guys right now. My squadron has had ~15-20 guys hired at the legacies/Cargo carriers since 2014 and a vast majority of us were hired with < 2000 hours.

Fighters? With a guard bro network?

But yes, competitive mil times are definitely coming down.

Yes fighters. But I've had heavy friend getting hired at < 2500. At Delta, the bro network only goes as far as getting your app scored once a year. For that, you just need one friend at DAL willing to send in an internal.