Originally Posted by
FL370esq
ATL might not be the best reference. MCO-ATL commuting is one of the tougher ones in the system. I know a lot of pilots who have chosen to do the MCO-NYC commute because it has a lot more commuting options (Delta, United, AA, Jet Blue, Spirit) and their seniority on respective equipment is light-years ahead of their ATL counterparts. Just another factor to consider.
Well I actually live west of TPA on the beach. I'm 30min from
TPA and 1+45 to MCO. I hear the TPA-ATL commute is brutal as well. Honestly if I wanted to commute to the northeast I would have applied to United for the widebody opportunities. I really just don't want to commute at all. I was considering a TPA-ATL commute because there are 12-15 1hr flights a day, but that is the extent of what I want to do.
I do still have my app in at American though. It seems AA would have a good balance of everything; easy commute or drive to work, tons of retirements providing for good upgrade potential, lots of widebodies, and MIA is a junior base "for now". It will be interesting to see what comes of their SLI and how seniority shakes out in MIA afterwards.