I retired five years ago, UAL was my first and only offer at the time (AA called a few weeks before I started training). I haven’t looked back and am very happy. WN is a great company with high quality people. I would have gone there if they had offered first (was preparing to get my guppy type rating when UAL called). That said, here are my thoughts:
- Short call time to base. UAL is 2.5 hours call to show (3.5 hours to departure); I believe WN is 2.0 hours call to departure. Might impact your decision if you’re in that 2-3 hour drive-to-base range
- UAL has huge (yuge!!!) retirements coming up in the next few years. Lots of movement right now just because of that. Throw in some modest growth and there will be opportunities to change your scenery/goose your income that might not be there with WN.
- WN has never furloughed as far as I’ve known. UAL has a very poor track record there. However, the aforementioned retirements and attendant hiring may mitigate that somewhat.
- Benefits. UAL has profit sharing (avg ~$14K/yr for past 4 years, though last 2 have declined considerably); pass travel benefits (have taken family to HNL, SIN, & FCO); UAL LTD bennies aren’t very good (tops out ~$100K annual tax free); can’t speak to medical, but dental/vision are reasonable (~$25/month per); sick leave is so-so at 60 hours/year accumulation with no cap, but also no sell back. Don’t know what WN offers in these respects, but that’s a start for comparison.
- Scope. WN has the edge here as they don’t have regional feed and no JVs as far as I know. UAL management wants to outsource more of our flying but can’t due to contractual language. That’s a big sticking point in current contract negotiations.
Both are good companies. Good luck!