Almost impossible to play the airline career chess game. Can’t predict furloughs. Stock market going down doesn’t mean the economy is bad. It’s still up from two years ago. And it doesn’t mean United is gonna furlough. There are no guarantees. Personally I’d make the jump. Your options are a-plenty at UAL. Lots of bases. Lots of planes to choose from. You have 25 years left to reap the benefits of high pay and B fund.

If something catastrophic happened you would pay the price regardless of where you are.

Make the jump. Time waits for no one.