Originally Posted by GoCats67

ORD is crazy right now for UA.

We have a vacancy bid that is open right now and closes on Tuesday. On the snapshot after accounting for requests for the current requests for all active pilots we still end up with unfilled vacancies in ORD for:

A320 FO
B737 CAP
B737 FO
B756 FO
B787 FO

This is the first time that 787 FO is showing as unfilled. The growth/movement right now across the system is so fast it makes getting the base you want basically immediate or on the next vacancy bid. Those have been running about every 6-7 weeks. The only caveat to that is that if you are very young you might get "forced" in the 777 as an initial assignment and then you wouldn't be able to get ORD since we don't (currently) have a 777 base in ORD.

Captain assignments have been going "unfilled" for about a year now and have gone unfilled everywhere but MCO, CLE, and GUM. You have to have been here a year to bid Captain, so with the crazy hiring it means that another 200 pilots per month are able to bid it if they want. Even with that every vacancy bid continues to have unfilled Captain assignments. The guess is that with a new contract (with hopefully significant workrule improvements) we might see more people willing to take the bid, but with all the planes that are coming I am not sure anything will be enough. Fortunately, a bunch of those new airplanes are replacing 50 seaters on the regional side, with much of that affecting our larger hubs that are gate restricted. So ORD and EWR are and will continue to reap the benefits of that transition with Regionals shrinking and Mainline growing.

So, I am not sure what WN has going at MDW, but ORD is a definitely a growth option at ORD.