Originally Posted by
velosnow
Congrats on the offer, without more info on where you want your career to go hard to give specific advice. I got hired here at 37 and in a few short years already have 2,500+ junior to me. Also happen to live in a UAL base and wanted UAL pretty bad. They never called so DAL it was, honestly quite happy the way it has turned out.
The variety of flying, culture (trust me very few are truly Hotel Van Commanders), contract, profit sharing, retirement, well ran company all are good things. Like anything else it isn’t perfect but overall it’s a great place to be.
I realize losing 6 years of seniority/pay at JB would be a daunting prospect but the retirements are just starting to really kick in so if you were to make the jump the time is now. If you want aircraft/flying variety, international flying, etc. I think this could be a good move. Also as a new hire on most fleets you can make decent $$ if you want. On our smallest plane I was easily six figures my second year and close the first one. Hope that sheds some light, good luck and Happy Festivus!
In a few short years you say? The latest hiring cycle for y’all started 2014. So anyone in 2014-2016 is gonna do way better than someone starting now.
The problem with Delta is ya hired 4,000+ plus since 2014, and the avg age of a new hire is 37. So the math says more than 2,000 pilots today at Delta are below 37. A JetBlue guy starting at 40 is not going to crack to top 3,000. Highly unlikely to hold A350 CA.
Someone else posted a retirement chart that said Delta has 14,400 pilots right now and to be #7,000 based on retirements, that would be year 2031. Half way up the list takes 12 years. That’s a lot to consider. Not sure how 6 yrs at JetBlue looks but a guess is around 50-65% overall? Where would that JetBlue guy be in 12 years? Top 25%?
Being 40 with a wife and 2 kids giving up $260k to go down to $90/hr on probation would have to be a big risk consideration.