Originally Posted by
fiftyfourtyten
I currently have a CJO at United with a class date in early March. I'm trying to make a decision of whether or not to make the jump from DAL to UAL while I'm still fairly junior at Delta (I have about 900 below me on the seniority list currently). I am aware that United has hired a similar ammount of pilots as Delta in the past decade, but it seems that the retirements and planned growth for United will translate to a similar (if not better) seniority situation. I also really like that United has more widebody flying and oppurtunities to upgrade quicker on the narrowbodies.
I'm not sure what to do and this decision has been weighing on me for a few months now. I'd really appreciate any advice or insight that anyone may have!
Rather than guess and hope find the actual retirement numbers by year. You can then compare your seniority progression year by year, or every 2 years (easier to wrap your head around), or every 5 years.
Keep in mind United has more large w/b's (not the small 757/767 pay bump) but you have to factor in how many of Delta and United's current 767's will be replaced by 787's (that's the large w/b pay bump that matters). Given UA's overall larger international route structure and subsequent larger large w/b fleet the same seniority number at Delta is less valuable at the end of your career. IE #400 at DL might have the same w/b bidding power as #500 at UA.
Get the data and work it out. Then figure out the value of driving to EWR for every trip vs the major pain of driving to JFK instead. Over decades it's almost "who cares! Just go to United and avoid all the pain!!"