Originally Posted by
Brooklyn99
Super appreciated. I did not realize upgrades were still sub 1 year, and not fully aware of jumpseat reservations at DAL, if I'm reading your post right. Is there an explanation for why captain is going so junior, because it seems statistically improbably given the way the hiring wave at DAL shook out?
By "18 hours call is a hell of a thing" you mean good, right? Or hidden gotchas?
It's a great thing. There's a reason why super junior widebody FO's are getting a line almost immediately in NYC... because the 18 hour long call QOL is very good assuming you don't get assigned short call (seems to be 2-3 times a month according to my classmates, and if you don't get used you get an extra hour of pay). Narrowbody expect to be on reserve when you're junior, especially out of ATL, but you'll still probably average 15 days/month off on reserve. If you do get assigned short call, you're almost always assigned a trip before you even get to the airport; it's often essentially a way for CS to bridge the gap between 2 and 18 hours.
As far as the junior captain upgrades, many people like QOL more and there are some senior FO's that make more than captains by rolling thunder/picking up greenslips (premium trips) and working the system, which isn't hard to do when you're senior (it's seniority-based).
If the commute is a short term thing and you're looking at moving to SLC anyway, I think the decision is a no-brainer.
Side note. Everyone talks about seniority when they talk about AA. Seniority = QOL and not getting furloughed. QOL is generally good across the board even when you're junior here. DL also avoided furloughing pilots during COVID. Food for thought.