>>1926325>>19261671. get to an airline with a base you want
2. make sure the airline doesn't do long haul
3. just be a first officer forever. you'll build seniority as an FO in the base you want to live in and will get to a point where you'll get whatever you bid for and you'd have the best scheduling. you'd just be sacrificing a chunk of pay by never upgrading to captain
the allegiant guy that hangs around in these threads probably has the right idea. get with allegiant (which probably isn't very hard), get the base you want, and be an FO for the rest of your career. same thing could be said with any other non-long-haul airline, just that allegiant is best even if you're not all that senior.
or scout ahead and see which bases are good for junior captains
