Twelve is the minimum. If you ended up with 9 that's your own fault for not putting in for 3.

AirWis might be a good place to go if they land a new contract and where that new contract takes them. Things to keep in mind before I would commit to AirWis
-They have not announced any flying after January of next year. Rumors are flying, but there is nothing formal. They could go belly up or they could get a great contract. Everyone is hoping for the sake of the employees there now that they land something.
-If they do land something, there is no guarantee that the bases will stay at their current locations. If base location was important to you and you were counting on PHL or DCA then I wouldn't hold my breath. Norfolk might still be there as a maintenance base, but nothing is certain.
-The $33k in new hire bonuses doesn't provide any breakdown. I don't think I would count on all of it in your 1st year. My guess is about half might be 1st year with the rest spread out over the next two years.
-AirWis still has a very senior CA list with upgrades right now sitting at around 5+ years. If they land a contract, odds are it will not fix the upgrade problem unless there is some huge growth associated with it. Even if they cut the upgrade time in half, if you need PIC time, there are other options that will get that for you much faster.

Take a hard look at AirWis before heading to them. I could see some Navy pointy nose folks out of Norfolk going to them because they have the Norfolk base and they feel they just need to get some 121 time or currency before being competitive for a call from a major. If not, then hopefully you have some time before you need to commit to an airline and AW comes out with what their future holds.

They will just end up making you work on your awarded day off in lieu anyways.

As far as the bonus goes, I can't get an answer (even a lie) out of their recruiters as they don't answer emails or return phone calls. However, here is what got appended to their profile this Friday on APC:
15,000 at completion of IOE
10,000 at 1 year anniversary of IOE
2,000 each quarter throughout 2nd year

So, it adds up to 33k but hardly a "signing bonus". Tester 130's assessment is correct, pretty attractive for a non-current guy with plenty of PIC time and can drive easily to PHL, ORF, or DC rather than commute and doesn't intend to spend a career in the regionals.

Maybe you've had better luck than me.

Exactly. And good luck getting anything grieved through our super amazing union. The same guys who told you that they "believed" you could check the box.

It's great to see the false optimism of people thinking suddenly this is going to get better.

There's still nothing to see here, no one should consider this a viable option until the company realizes what people have known for months.

Stay away.

You can lead a pilot to a plethora of information, but you can't make him read it

In your example, you took the pay and elected to give up your days off.

Then you get another one. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. (Until you get to 10 for the calendar year)

"Day in-lieu denied to maintain RSV coverage"