I wouldn't listen to a delta pilots opinion about United. They drink managements propoganda about how amazing they are on a pretty frightening basis. I would ask a few non-odd friends who have made the jump to different airlines about how their last few trips went and the United people will have enjoyed their trips with a few small exceptions. There is a pretty wide gap in culture that shouldn't be ignored.

That deltas guys numbers were a few years outdated. UAL is currently around 14000 pilots on the seniority list RIGHT now. Our seniority list is only updated every July here at UAL. Delta owning Europe prepandemic is an opinion. Delta lacks significant number of widebodies, outsources a lot of international, a lot more non-union labor boosting bottom line, and flies with two captains on a majority of augmented routes. Plusses and minuses with each. Their profit sharing uses a more favorable formula than ours that is significant but we have more widebody people on payroll with a lot more widebody first officers. Having those dollars spread around more evenly vs having pools of people chasing those dollars to make you have a higher relative seniority on a narrow body for years... everything has a Ying to the yang.

LTD is a much more nuanced conversation than most people are willing to comprehend. Ours is tax free up to 11,000 right now, 90 days to activate, and to get the max 11,000 you would need an hourly rate in the mid 260's (I can't remember but you need to be left seat) to get the max, and if you live in nj or california with disability you have to pay that back. Deltas formula is higher with a retirement contribution but they have a different calculation for the payout based on your past 12 months that I don't actually like. Some plans aren't after tax dollars as well so it is very difficult to get a fair comparison. We have a ways to go and the last tumi TA had some improvements that will hopefully be improved upon further.