I’m pretty sure that SWA is industry-leading when it comes to the number of guaranteed days off on reserve. But, how long are people typically on reserve at SWA or UA these days? Assuming you won’t be on reserve for terribly long, I don’t know that I’d weight this factor very heavily.
The second point, about flexibility at SWA, I’m not so sure about. Maybe flexibility at UA is absolutely terrible and flexibility at SWA, as bad as my experience has been with it, is actually better. I don’t know.
But my experience with flexibility at SWA as someone who is very senior is that I’ve never had much of any luck with it. Only very rarely have I been able to find a better deal via our “ELITT” system or “TTGA” and only rarely does someone pick up a trip out of giveaway from my board, even when I’ve had the highest paying all-turn line in my base.
I’ve heard about this vaunted “flexibility” my entire career at SWA but, like I said, I’ve never really experienced it, even when very senior. Either I completely suck at working the system or the flexibility at other airlines is just plain abominable, making SWA’s flexibility look good by comparison.
The only time I really have flexibility is during a vacation month when I can take out large chunks of my schedule with our vacation pull system. Then, I can either not work or pick up premium trips from open time.
Maybe you have to be a member of a “cartel” to actually have flexibility at SWA. I don’t know. If that’s how the people who talk about SWA’s “awesome” flexibility are able to do it, then it’s not contractual and you have to “know” people to make it happen - kind of, I guess, like being in a cool kids clique in junior high. But my data point for you is that I’ve experienced very little flexibility at SWA.
This gets pointed out a lot when someone makes a point like the one above, but I’ll make the point again: at least if you want it, at UA you have the opportunity right now to upgrade very early. At SWA, you don’t have that opportunity at all.
Then, at UA, you also have the choice to go to the wide body fleet or the training center as well. At SWA, we have no wide body option (obviously) and the training center is staffed almost entirely by non-MSL employees, so it’s not really a thing for a SWA pilot.
Even after waiting seven to ten years to upgrade at SWA, it’s not like the QOL is awesome. Go read ZapBrannigan’s
post 1660 on the Upgrade Times thread to hear about his lack of QOL taking earliest upgrade at SWA after seven years (I think). I don’t know how much better that is than if you were to upgrade in your first year at UA.