Interesting interplay between
Seggy,
Firebird2XC and
Autothrust Blue
Seggy went to what was considered a crap-bag regional, worked to make it better, got his TPIC and is now with a real airline.
Eagle guys went to the "quality" regional with the long upgrade, are still right seat and looking at the AMR BK, furloughs, etc.
Colgan is being shut down as well.
To me, the moral of the story - regionals suck. Get whatever you need quickly and get out. If you have to take crap-bag wages and QOL for a time, don't settle for slightly more than crap-bag wages and QOL and lengthen your time there. The regionals don't control their flying, therefore have limited control over their business. The regionals are a pure price-based commodity and one of the only levers that management can pull of the shareholders is wages - so they will always have negative pressure. The quick TPIC is better - it is a tangible asset and I would bet that suffering crap pay and QOL for a shorter time in exchange for TPIC is more lucrative in the long-run because you can end up getting a real job quicker.
That's just what I'm taking away from this - not sure but that's how I'm seeing it.