Delta guy here, I'd say he should have stayed at UAL. ORD-DTW is a relatively "easy" commute (if that's a real thing), but it's not driving to work. I don't care what anyone says, any commute is not walking off the plane to my car and driving home. It's not sitting short call from your couch or the golf course. I was at AAL and would have had the opposite commute as the OP. I added up the amount of extra time I would spend away from home commuting the rest of my life and it was staggering. That was before I even considered how much time I could spend at home on reserve at DAL. This also didn't take into account all the extra money that can be easily made as a local and super seniority you can get on bidding if you're willing to wake up early. UAL is a powerhouse and you can drive to work, not sure why anyone would give that up to commute.