Originally Posted by
MinRest
They sent WARN letters and I know for a fact UAL downgraded because I had two friends downgraded. I was incorrect the furlough, however the fact remains that we didn't, and we didn't send WARN notices out either. I don't care that the company initially wanted to. They didn't... AS has statistically faired better in downturns than the rest. They furlough less by percentage or don't furlough at all. The price that AS pays is that the growth isn't as crazy when times are good. You said it, in the end we have to do what is right for ourselves and everyone has a different set of priorities and goals. Delta would not be worth me going to with my seniority and not living in base, so why would I do that? Somebody with a year or two at AS who wanted DAL in the first place, yea go and enjoy a great career there for sure.
I have a buddy from my new hire class at VX leave AS to go to DAL and fly the 737 out of SEA lol. Left the left seat to go be an FO on the same airplane in the same base. He is finding himself happier now but it was 3 years of misery and he is just now happy with his schedule again. Not the pay yet but just his schedule.
I didn’t want to dive into the facts of my
move but whatever it’s irrelevant now because it’s not attainble anymore at either airline. I was a late 2017 hire to Alaska and left in 2022. No sense getting into the myriad of reasons why I left but I left and what’s done is done. Pre HA/AK merger I was set to retire at number 36 and left with essentially a left seat award at Alaska. I could have been at this point driving to work for AA/UA and stuck it out at Delta for another group of reasons not relevant to the AS vs DL debate that I made based on 2022 data/decisions. 11 months later I was awarded an upgrade to the lowest paying fleet we have where I’ve consistently had 18-20 day off lines crediting 90 hours. If I cared to really look it up the numbers are actually more than that but the year isn’t over and that wouldn’t be fair. My
classmates haven’t been able to do that well, if I stayed an FO at DL I’d have a higher seniority in similar equipment than I did still being at Alaska. None of this is because Delta is better than Alaska it’s just the numbers game that existed at the time of leaving. Everyone had that opportunity to at least apply interview and get a CJO at a big 3 and decide for
themselves what was best. Those days are gone now but to say grass isn’t greener?… well it was but those folks for whatever chose not too and that’s cool too.
And as an aside when I went to Qual at AS on the 737 I had a classmate who got hired right before Covid who’s dad was like the most senior CA we had at the time. One day out of the blue after I left he called me up to ask about DL… he had an interview at DL got the job and accepted. Guy rocked it insanely well as an FO… then I saw him again while I was in upgrade where he was also upgrading a thing he was able to do only at Delta and wasn’t going to happen for a hot minute at Alaska. So yea no airline is better than the other by certain measures but some do offer more opportunity than others.