Johno
I do work there.... There are posts regarding most of the questions you asked and "flywithruss" gave a great synopsis...
To add a little more though...
Hiring... Who knows, no offical word other than maybe in the next 6-8 weeks.
Pay... 19.54 FO first year, will be 23.68 for 2nd year on 5/1/03 with 75 hr guarantee. By this time next year I would expect Captain to be 3 years or better so it will be about $60.31 for after 5/1/04.
Junior "should" remain DTW, MEM is currently taking a lot of people (some 14 or so for Oct). Should have growth in MEM next year so MEM will be a base a new hire should be able to get into. Right now new hires are being sent all over the place month to month. 1 month MSP may take a lion share then the next will be DTW. Basically, whatever planning thinks is where they go.
Upgrade... ???? increasing slowly and will continue too...
QOL... if your in the top 20-30%... good to great, better than 3 years with the company (about 30% mark) you can be looking at 16-18 days per month, any lower than that it varies...
We had our largest amount of growth in the last 12-16 months, that is where we went from about 250 pilots to 500. The last of that hiring spree just past the 1 year mark (last offical class that were hired was in late July), all others were either let go or brought back in Feb. QOL will should slowly increase for some as jets arrive and if we continue to show positve expansion to new cities.
The RUMOR back a year ago was that our "expected" pilot group would be 1300 pilots, we are currently about 550.