I’m fortunate to have the option of AA or Delta. As a 45 year old, what is the better option? AA is a financial nightmare, but DL brings the chance of a year or more in JFK (I have a low SS number, so no bidding power). AA also has mass retirements, which brings some security. Thoughts?

 

The answer is where do you plan on living for the next 20 years?

 

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.

 

 

Where do you live/plan to live? May be the most important question. Do you have class dates for both yet? I'm guessing your AA class date will be months before Delta, why not go and see how it is and what you think. If you decide to stay, great! If not, you can still go to Delta and commute or maybe even 2 leg commute to NY and hate your entire first year, but hopefully have improvements after that year. I say hopefully after reading about many of Delta's pairings and real fatigue concerns. But that could change and improve.

 

Exactly. I’m fortunate to work alongside pilots at pretty much all the other legacies in my side hustle, and will say that every airline has its warts (and some of those concerns specifically addressed by “old man yelling at cloud” are universal.) They all complain as well, your never going to find utopia or a clear winner. So, priority one is to go where you can live in base (or absent that, whichever one offers the easiest commute.) Financials, whatever. Delta just hasn’t recapitalized their fleet yet, but they are going to have to, so who’s to say their debt load won’t increase soon.


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Echo the where do you live question/answer. That's all that matters (IMO obviously)

I suck at predicting the future. But I can't see you having to stay a year in NYC unless you want to. Not a bad way to set your worst case expectations, but I don't think it'd happen.

 

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.

 

Thank you all for the input. I plan to stay west of the Mississippi and long-distance commuting for a year, while not ideal, would be something I can deal with.

 

It's always difficult to judge airlines because you start reading something critical and it turns into Alex Jones yelling about goblins. It seems like it's questionable if American will stay around with Delta constantly moving in on them and regionals giving way the LCCs, and like an idiot you'd think it was because of some measurable financial choices or business models, but in reality it's because their tweets are too woke.

To me, American seems to be in dire straits, and I'm not sure the seniority will be as good as expected since they will have a hard time growing while Delta keeps muscling in on their territory. If Delta does what American did and takes out a huge loan and uses it to expand more in AA territory instead of buying back stock, I don't know how AA would handle it. I think you should expect DL to keep growing. Not totally clear what they will do with international stuff(expand vs outsource).