Originally Posted by
UnusualAttitude
Someone posted about this recently who lived in an AA hub and my advice was that it would be hard to turn down living in base. I would say the same thing to you quite honestly. If you live in MEM and you see yourself living in MEM for the next 25+ years then I would 100% come to FDX. Living in MEM at Purple allows a lifestyle that’s probably in practice a 10-15% seniority bump. I know it seems hard to walk away but unless you plan to move to a fortress hub (DFW being the only true fortress hub at AA) I would make the jump to purple. It’s the guys who live in MEM and bid RB who have the sweetest gig of all. Very little night flying, lots of free days off at home and a 20 minute drive to the O&B lot. Instructor jobs are very lucrative if you live in town, kind of harder for commuters, project pilot types, etc. America may run on Dunkin but Purple runs on MEM locals.
Whatever you decide I wish you the best of luck.
-UA
Listen to this guy. He gets it.
To the OP... I left a big 3 pax airline that I was supposed to retire top 20 at to come here. No place is perfect but this place works best for me. And I commute. Any job is the best job, or the worst job. It's all about perspective, attitude and what you make of it. I simply cannot imagine passing up FedEx if you live in Memphis. The local crowd gets to enjoy some wild advantages that us commuters may only ever dream of. Plus the opportunities to do some other cool stuff outside of being a line slug.
It seems like your heart is in it, but your brain is telling you to slow down and think about it-- which is good. That being said, I suspect if you never did it, you'll always wonder "what if." JMHO.