Originally Posted by
SSlow
IMO anyone in the top half of NK's seniority list would be kind of crazy to start over at AA. UA or DL would be much more solid options, but AA? My bet is that they end up falling behind the other legacies quite significantly over the next 10-20 years.
Their pilot group is way too divided, APA sucks, and much like Spirit they have become the "second chance" airline of the legacies by hiring/flowing pilots who traditionally never would have made it to a legacy. Nothing against those pilots, but there will definitely be side effects felt from that later on down the road.
Lots of "well it's better than Envoy/PSA/GoJet" types over there.
In fact AA and NK merging would be kind of fitting...we could be a large b-scale legacy combining our bites of the apple mentality with their 16 different bitter and PO'd pilot groups.
Does one stay at NK or jump ship to AA/UA/DL? There's considerable risk with either decision. Are you giving up seniority for a more stable carrier or are you jumping from one frying pan to another? I've flown with a lot of guys out of MCO, ATL, DFW, and IAH and those are the questions that everyone is asking. And there's no cut and dry answer for everyone or even anyone. I can tell you that the base shennanigans, reductions, downgrades, and general instability of NK is weighing heavily on a lot of guys with a lot of years left. I'd estimate that 75% of the guys I fly with are looking to leave and if recent AA inteview classes are any indication then that's a pretty accurate percentage. I think a lot of guys are tired of wondering if they'll be driving to work the rest of their careers or communiting to EWR, FLL, or who knows where. No one at DL is asking these questions of ATL, or UA about IAH, or AA of DFW. There is risk either way but a lot of guys are looking for stability and predictabilty regardless of the percetption of the carrier. Ted and Bendo have uprooted more pilots in the last four years than all of our carriers combined and I think that's the straw that has broken a lot of backs.