Originally Posted by
beachtaco
Interesting situation. I'm debating a similar move myself and would love some input and opinions. Currently at HAL for almost 4 years. It's a great company, I just really don't like living in Hawaii (high cost of living, island fever, bad schools, etc), especially being so far from family who live on the east coast. We are for sure moving to the mainland so I will be commuting to Hawaii going forward. I can pretty much get the schedule I want. Debating if its worth it to leave for SWA or another airline and not have to commute so far. Possibly even move to base depending on where I would get picked up and what bases they have. It is worth starting over somewhere else? Ideally we would end up on the east coast, but going west coast for now to make the commute not as horrendous.
One way to alleviate the pain of commuting would be to live in one of your destinations. For example, if you were to live in SoCal, with your seniority, how likely/possible is it for you to hold SoCal layovers? Or any daily Hawaiian destination for that matter? See what I’m getting at? Hawaiian is small enough that something like that just might be possible with a somewhat tolerable pain since you’ll at least spend time at home while on trips.
SWA is a decent option because we have bases all over the country. The opportunity cost will be that you’ll never fly a widebody here and upgrade time still will likely take just under a decade and that’s if there are no more black swan events like the MAX grounding and Covid. Prior to Covid, I would have said that job security at Southwest was better, but after the 1221, touting job security is false advertising and furlough would be a risk even at SWA.
Personally, I’d stay put. Move to the West Coast, upgrade on the little Bus, and aim to have layovers at home.