Originally Posted by RJSAviator76

I enjoy these X vs. Y threads because they prove that no answer is absolute... we all value different things at different stages. I’m a SWA captain, and for me, the choice was simple: stay local or move the family. I refuse to commute, and staying put has turned into a very lucrative career move.

I’ll be the first to admit that United has a massive edge in fleet diversity and rapid seniority movement within the narrow-body ranks. If you hate the 737, United's fleet flexibility is something we just can't match, and that shouldn't be discounted. I actually missed the cut at United years ago after failing the Hogan, and while I briefly considered reapplying during our 2022 meltdown, the math didn't add up. Even with a quick upgrade at United, walking away from my seniority and progress at SWA would have meant leaving millions of dollars on the table over the course of my career.

The fundamental difference between our two pilot groups is how we approach the "game." At United, the goal seems to be the highest pay for the least amount of work and the highest pilot count. At Southwest, we are grinders. We actually start grumbling if we’re overstaffed because it would kill the premium flying. In fact, one of the gains in our contract is that we forced the company to offer premium flying if the first day of the trip goes across the reserve RAP and not allow them to break it up to use reserves instead if there are legal premium bidders for the whole trip. My "worst" month at SWA was around 125 TFP, which is still 30% over the typical line award. Throughout my career, even as a junior CA, I’ve averaged over 150 TFP monthly, and the real players here regularly clear 200+ without hitting FAR limits. As a SWA FO, I was regularly out-earning my junior UAL 737 captain buds. As a captain now here, it's not even in the same league, especially when you take into account seniority and even SWA junior pilots ability to credit big numbers... but my UAL buds can change fleets and virtually work for a different airline simply by changing fleet while a SWA pilot is in the same grind. As I said, this cannot be discounted.

Of course, if I don't want to work and have zero interest in anything beyond my line, at SWA I'll have 17-20 days off per month and do something else. The only way we have 15 days off per month is you are on reserve as our regular lines are built to have 17 to 20 days off per month. If you have 12-14 days off, you're picking up extra work as a reserve or a line holder.

One last thing, our contractual flexibility is also a big differentiator that is often overlooked in these comparisons. We can trade across the entire system regardless of domicile or line holder vs. reserve pilot restrictions; for instance, an LAX pilot can swap his four-day trip for say a MDW pilot’s reserve block, or we can just go see what other pilots across the system are giving away. It's not uncommon for say pilots on the West Coast to give away their Hawaii flying and someone from our midwest bases would commute to fly their 4 day Hawaii trip while the West Coast guy chases premium flying. This is one of the few benefits of having a single fleet type.

I do think UAL pilots live much more of an airline pilot life than SWA pilots. At SWA, it's a narrowbody grind no matter how you slice it, but SWA pilot will generally out-earn his UAL counterpart, or if they don't pick up extra, they'll generally have more time off the hook.