4 years'ish. And falling. That is the growth airplane. ORD is proboly the most Jr base and will continue that way... So little or no reserve.. (Based on growth the next 2 years)

I will attempt. I have been researching regionals for a while and narrowed it to compass and skywest and expressjet. How do their contracts compare? I would like to have SEA or PDX as a base mostly because I am sick and tired of the southeast having lived in metro Atlanta last 20years.

Skywest doesn't really have a contract. Everyone is an at will employee and stuff changes daily with an excuse of that's how we've always done it.
Compass would be a good choice or Skywest for the PNW. I'd stay away from ExpressJet as they will eventually shrink even though they have a solid contract.

I agree that it will probably fall over the next year the way everyone is hiring, but the last 3 months the upgrade time has actually been rising. No upgrades were awarded for 2 months and then the bid that came out today went very senior. The most junior captain awarded today is still senior to every captain we already have. The upgrade time has risen a few months recently.

Everyone with the mins have apps out. Doesn't mean your gonna get the call. I've got a lot of buddies with tons of hours not getting a call. No rhyme or reason to it. The good part is I have a military retirement as a supplemental so I'm not eating ramen everyday. I can afford to stay here for a career if I like the company and the people. I've been told the crews at Skywest are the best out there. Its the main reason I interviewed here.
I'm looking forward to starting. Hopefully all will go well.

I don't think this is quite what you meant to say. Perhaps the most junior captain awarded today is senior to most (all?) of the captains awarded at the last award?

I think the award just went more senior this month than prior months because of the lack of upgrades for two months. Those senior guys were worried the music might stop forcing them to spend another x no. of years (7?) as an FO so they took the upgrade before missing the boat.

Quite understandable really.

Airfix

Of course it's understandable. I assumed this award would go senior for that reason. It doesn't change the point I was trying to make that the upgrade time is actually rising recently though. The person I responded to said the upgrade time is dropping fast.

Most junior captain awarded today: 5/30/2011 date of hire. Upgrade time is back well over 4 years.

I guess I didn't finish my thought - the next bid I think the upgrade will drop below 4 years but I agree it is not dropping fast.

Airfix

The sudden bump in upgrade is because senior bases are being awarded on the ERJ, they are transitioning from Alaska flying that's going away. CRJ classes stopped to catch up on FO new hires and are now catching up to ERJ with regards to most junior CA hire date.

It will drop below 4 but probably be 6 months or so till then because of how many people were hired in 2011-2012

Upgrade always goes senior after the holidays also..