ULCC or American?
Curious to get some opinions or thoughts. This is not a question I would have thought to find myself asking, but now I've got a choice and I'm going to ask the internet for some perspective (hopefully with minimal regrets).
Here's my situation. I'm newly employed by a ULCC, and I also have a CJO from American. At the ULCC I have about a 1.5-2.0 hour drive to work. I see myself being really happy here if it were the last place I worked for, however I do have ambitions to do widebody flying in my career, and that's not an option where I'm currently at. If I take the CJO from American I would have a 4 hour driving commute, with an option to fly commute, but with lots of competition for the jumpseat. Other than having a better commute at my ULCC it seems like I'll be sacrificing schedule flexibility, at least in the short term until American gets a new contract. I also have some reservations regarding American's current finances, and I worry about how well American will fair when the economy inevitably sours. But the prospect of getting in early with all the retirements and the opportunity for widebody flying are big draws for me.
I've sat down with my family and had the discussion of pros and cons for both, but I'm curious what some of you with more experience in the Part 121 world have to say. Are American's financial woes blown out of proportion? Things seem to change frequently in this business, so is it really something to worry about? Will American's new contract really fix a lot of the QoL issues? I'll leave it here, as you probably get the gist. Thanks in advance for the advice.