A fair synopsis. Many of the guys I fly with here at Alaska have been flying here for 20+ years and still love it! Other things to include:
- Only flying one airplane for your career: means a lot to some to be able to fly different airplanes, but it was not even a factor in my thoughts. In my last job, I flew the same airplane for 22 years, and never got bored. In this job, I will fly the same airplane for 17 years, unless we buy DAL with their mix of 69 different aircraft types ...
- Living in base is huge. Time frame to get to SEA for DAL vs. you can likely get PDX out of training with AS (or within one bid, a couple of months max). If DAL's new contract gets approved, you will be seat locked for 24 months, which means (if I understand correctly) that if you get an MD88 to NYC out of training, you are stuck there for 2 years until you can bid to go to training in an aircraft they have in SEA. Also, what happens when DAL pulls out of SEA (like MEM,for example) ...
- Flying big airplanes internationally is the end game for some. For me, I did not care about that (I started the airline gig after retiring from the USAF, just like Buzz.). I have been around the world, and long flights are boring, with long layovers. I like the ability at Alaska to only do 1 or 2-day trips. As a new hire (last summer), albeit in the ANC base, I fly 15 days per month max but am gone from my own bed only about 6 nights per month.
- Type of flying. Within AS, this varies greatly from base to base, but each base has a mix of 1 to 4 day trips. Only ANC flies the Arctic. Plus, only ANC and SEA (PDX pilots, too, if they volunteer and remain current) fly southeast (Alaska). That is some fun flying, very different than what I would call typical airline flying. Flying southeast is much more like using a 737 to fly the bush--hand flying VFR legs on certain segments, for instance. All our bases fly Hawaii. SEA and PDX have some very nice lines.
- There is more to life than money, and yes, you will make more at DAL but it seems from my friends there and many of the posters on this site, it quickly becomes just a job. I haven't met many AS pilots like that ... But again, that is the ANC base, where most guys I fly with like being pilots and have their own airplanes.
- Upgrade timing / seniority. Both airlines are hiring like mad right now, but in the 11 months since I was hired, I have about 200 folks below me ... In an airline with 1650ish pilots, that is incredible, and the future is 20 pilots per month. Captain upgrade is rumoured to come down to 5 years (the Jan bid junior captain was a 9 year dude). We have a bid out now, largest ever, with 50 upgrades.

Bottom line, both are great jobs, great companies, and have a great future. Tough choice but it probably boils down to whether you look better and would like to wear a leather jacket to work (Alaska) or the double-breasted navy-lite uniform of DAL!