Originally Posted by Margaritaville (Post 3337190)

Make a pros and cons list.

Delta:
Bases in NYC, ATL, DTW, MSP, SLC, SEA, LAX
Questionable cockpit culture especially the RDPs in ATL. Military vs. civilian issues. "Where's your hat, son?" "Put that newspaper away, son". Guard policing and constant ambiguous ride reports.
Horse blankets when it's 90 degrees.
Autocratic management style only a notch above SkyWest. They will treat you like a child. Pilots are the only union. DALPA usually bends over anyhow.
The company is profitable and the pilots make good money. Strong balance sheet. Aging fleet will have to be replaced. Debt will go up.
Arguably the best product in terms of passenger experience. Loyal business customer base (HVCs).
Work rules are okay except their schedules. Reassignment rules worse than a regional. You won't fly what you bid.
210/356 day bid awards and new hire seat locks. Nearly guarantees 2 years in NYC if you're junior.

American:
Bases in BOS, NYC, PHL, DCA, MIA, DFW, ORD, PHX, LAX. You can pretty much live anywhere with them.
Questionable cockpit culture. Legacy US/AW/AA? Older pilots nearing retirement who have had a terrible career and it shows. Flow vs. street vs. military.
Respectful management style that expects pilots to be leaders and take action. Nonpunitive culture.
Management that can't seem to get it together. Are you going to be an LCC or a Legacy?
Massive overhead and bloated management structure. Not profitable but loyal customer base. Decent passenger experience. Has potential to be great.
Massive debt due to refleeting. Most of it is secured debt like a mortgage, not bad debt like a credit card.
Bankruptcy/merger contract over 10 years old. Can only get better? APA is fairly strong compared to ALPA.
Massive retirements. Incredible upward movement. NB CA in less than 3 years WB CA in less than 10.
New hires are getting almost any base. 6 month aircraft lock. You can bid any base in training and will probably get it.

Originally Posted by Varks (Post 3337903)

No airline hedges fuel anymore. AA fleet is the most efficient. Delta just took delivery of the last old A321. The NEO sips fuel and has less weight restriction issues. Get with the program Delta.

Delta runs a great operation. AA does not. Things could change but we would need a Crandall like micro manager to fire the people not doing their jobs.

I just had a long delay at a huge base because they had no head sets for a legacy AWA aircraft. The mechanics brought every possible headset to the plane and none that would work. MD80 headset brand new? Check. 727 head clamp headset brand new? Check. Legacy AA Airbus headset? Check. We waited for an inbound AWA aircraft and they thankfully had 3. You can’t make this up. I wasn’t in a small outstation no maintenance base. We suuuuuuuuuck.

Go where you want to live. Best advice I can give you. Hoping Isom can turn this place around but have little hope.

P.S. yes it is me that is too cheap to buy a headset.

Originally Posted by Route66 (Post 3337117)

I have never seen an airline implode as bad as here at American. I've been here over 35 years and I will tell you the morale is the worst. Even in the merger times there was the hope for renewal and a new beginning. Not now. Parker and Eberwine are jumping ship. Their WOKE culture has created divisiveness and division. Few except on the web boards will disagree with this assessment. The mask/pandemic illusion is very autocratic and the management at least here is non existent and for show....wait, they don't even come out of their offices except to come and go! Delta is your best bet. Balance sheet is much better. Stay the course and stay away. Tell your friends too. Its now called AmeriKant Airlines. Remember that.

Originally Posted by Al Czervik (Post 3337859)

I’d really worry about joint ventures if I were at delta.

Originally Posted by Andrew_VT (Post 3337979)

Our union guys have been proudly saying something like this for years and you obviously bought it.

"Delta's scope is awful and ours is solid."

Then the Alaska and JetBlue deals happened and surprise surprise they stopped bragging about it.

Originally Posted by Gundam (Post 3337743)

AA has not seemed to derive much benefit from their younger fleet, and from articles I've read their margins are the slimmest which would point to problems in their fundamental business model, and in some cases they made most of their money selling frequent flyer miles or something. AA has the lowest operating cash flow. I think if AA had not bought back its stock it would be a great option for pilots now despite those things. Unfortunately, as we've seen now with Boeing and many other companies, when the business is directly run to increase share price instead of improving the actual business, it results in failure, and a confounding business model. Why did AA make money when it did well, why does it struggle to make any money other times?

Parker even admitted he didn't think they could catch D in profit margin for transporting passengers after multiple years.

To someone else that said no airlines should buyback stock, I agree. That would be a great concrete goal for the pilot unions to rally around to actually positively impact how the entities that govern our lives are run.

If the economy favors air travel for the next 5 years, I'd say AA is the place to go(as a pilot). If you think travel will take another hit in that time AA will almost certainly go down unless their business no longer involves flying airplanes or they have someone in the Whitehouse Cabinet. Would you be cool starting over at another airline in 4 years? If yes, obviously go to AA because if it works out you've made it, huge money, great schedule etc. If it doesn't, just go to the next place. No matter what you will be paid better than 90% of people.

Originally Posted by Aviatormar (Post 3337981)

will go down? If I pandemic didn’t “make it go down” what will? And while paying cash is great for us.. just remember corporate financing doesn’t work like for us plebs. And AA secured deals way earlier. You know before inflation.

Originally Posted by DWC CAP10 USAF (Post 3337906)

I love some friendly ribbing as much as the next guy, but let me clean up a few of your DL bullets: