Originally Posted by
flyguy81
I was at a Super Bowl party with the DEN plug on the 737...CAL guy hired in '98. Was on the jumpseat of the DEN Bus Plug...had 21 yrs seniority. Has it changed in 4 months? Possibly but it didn't go from '98 to '05 in 4 months.
If there's a 2005/6 in DEN they were hired at CAL and got lucky they didn't get displaced. It's around 1-1.5 yrs to hold DEN as a NB FO at UAL, 4 months at SWA. SWA has a 10-15 yr upgrade....it'll probably take that long to hold DEN CA at UAL...plus UAL has a history of crappy management and pooping on labor. I think I'll stay at WN.
I'm not disagreeing. I'm just saying that picking the most out of whack smallest base at United as the benchmark for someone deciding which airline to go to isn't a good idea. We have 2 year 777 FOs and "essentially" 3 year Captains because 3 years ago they were on the street. Yes Denver is a mess because they closed a fleet and shrunk the base. Everyone at UAL senior to 9,500 on the seniority list can hold Captain somewhere, and everyone senior to 8,000 can hold every base except Denver.
We have furloughed UAL pilots at SWA now, and one of them asked me in the airport what he could hold and I told him Airbus Captain in San Fran and he said he's 9 years from Captain at SWA. He can come back to United any time until 2019. I think those guys are coming back. Not because SWA is a bad airline, its a great airline. There are just more choices at United, that's all.