Originally Posted by
FlyingNasaForm
I'd be thankful if anyone could share some advice on what they think is best for me.
I live in central NJ, about 40 mins from EWR. UA seems the obvious choice due to the easy EWR drive but it seems like DAL may have better work rules. I have a young child at home and currently at corp where I get 15-18 days off a month. When I flew for the regionals I was good at "gaming" the system to maximize pay and QoL. I make around $270,000 (pay + retirement) now and getting back to that is important, but so is seeing my kid.
Round numbers for your scenario as a 2nd year reserve captain (easily attainable FOR NOW since so few want to be CA in EWR):
$260 x 73 min guarantee = $19K per month. You’ll be on reserve forever, but if you are just thinking about applying now the new contract will likely be here by the time you get here. Being on reserve for a period of years will be the main driver of your QOL rather than incremental contract differences that Delta may or may not have over United. Going forward I believe the main difference will be the huge disparity in number of widebody aircraft between the two.