I was a --- 2015 hire on the 747. At the time, Atlas was a very interesting choice--I was fresh out of the Air Force (---- hours in Military Aircraft), Atlas picked me up with a pending contract negotiation that they were claiming would rival American's, upgrade in 5 years or less and the 747. What's not to love? I drank the Kool Aid and was all about Atlas--so much so that I delayed my availability at United and Delta by about 5 years. That is, I kept my UAL and DAL apps in the airlineapps system, but put 2019 or so in the "availability box." I wanted to give Atlas a fair shake, and see if the management was going to be true to their word about negotiations that December.
Fast forward to late October 2015. I had busted my 74 type ride in June, but other than that had an uneventful first 6 months at Atlas. Halfway through a trip in October, United sent me an email indicating that while they knew my availability was in 2019, they were interested in interviewing me at the earliest opportunity whenever I was within 6 months of availability. All I had to do was send the email. Keep in mind I had my apps in with United for well over a year at this point, and the ONLY change I made to them was adding my employment at Atlas and checking the part 121 box on the airline apps website. I even added the 747 bust, and that didn't deter them. Ironically, the day after I received the email from United, I received an email from the ExCo outlining the beginning of the terrible pace at which the company has been conduction negotiations since late last year, and continue to do so. That made a tough decision easy, and I interviewed at United in December of 2015 and accepted conditional employment a week later. I could have started in January of 2016, but delayed my class date till 5 April so I could get married and go through training with no interruptions.
I put my 2 weeks notice in with ANC ACP on - ----- 2016, and received no response. I then sent the same email to System CP on the 8th, with a final employment date of -- ----- 16. He called me within 5 minutes of me sending the email, and we had a conversation that lasted about 10 minutes. The synopsis follows, keep in mind it's been a couple weeks and I don't remember everything verbatim, but can recall the general tone:
Overall, Mr. System CP was friendly, but businesslike. He asked me why I was leaving. I responded that Atlas pay and benefits was substandard, my quality of life was suffering, and I wanted to actually have a retirement in 35 years when I retired. I said I was young and had a new family to watch out for, and Atlas simply wasn't a good fit anymore. I concluded with "Also, I have no faith that Atlas management will conduct contract negotiations in good faith, additionally I don't see a new contract happening under any circumstances any time soon." His response came in 2 parts, first he said he understood why I'm leaving, and that he did the same thing when he went to Northwest back in the 80's. He also mentioned the contract, and tried to twist the negotiation SNAFU into being the union's fault. He indicated that he hadn't seen a union this aggressive and "chest-thumping" since the 80's, and that the union will have to start playing more fairly if they wanted to get something meaningful done. I didn't see any point in arguing with him, so I just listened. I then told him that he might want to be careful about his pilot numbers, and relayed my UAL hiring story above, indicating that the major's are headhunting even guys like me with low hours and a busted type on their record. He didn't really have a substantial response to this. He then reminded me that UAL could easily furlough me if the economy has a downturn because their pilot numbers are so large, while Atlas most likely wouldn't. I responded that yes, this was a risk, and a reason why Atlas was so attractive to me was the business model was more recession-proof than a normal airline, however this was a risk I was willing to take based on the potential gain of long-term employment at United Airlines. He ended the conversation on some notes about my last few days at Atlas (I had called in sick and then taken vacation for my wedding), and we wrapped the call up.
Edited for names and dates