It really comes down to what is more important to you. If it's maximizing time with your family and QOL then living in base is the single best thing you can do for yourself and your family. Having done both I will never ever commute again. People try to justify how certain airlines are better for commuting such as positive space, DHs to work, etc.. at the end of the day. It's time away from your family. I leave my house 45min prior to sign in. Additionally, despite what others might make you think, AA isn't going anywhere. You'd make more money at FedEx and it's absolutely a more stable company (compared to any of the pax carriers), but when I had to make the same decision.. Brown in my case. I decided there was no chance I was moving to SDF and night hubs turns / week + long haul trips wasn't in the best interest for myself or the family. I'm very happy with my decision. Make the decision that's best for you and your family and don't look back.

I had the same decision to make, live in domicile at AAL and another legacy or commute at FedEx.

I chose FedEx and don’t regret it a bit.

I know a person who flew for AA, lived in CLT and they left for FedEx in sort of a quick decision panic when Covid got rough. They were junior so faced what turned out to be a very short furlough, but got nervous over it all and panic fled. My words, not theirs.

In short, they regret it. Not their exact words, I’m paraphrasing, but they didn’t realize how quickly things would bounce back for pax carriers, etc. They have said that if they knew how it would all turn out, they would’ve stayed at AA in CLT. So, now they’re left commuting for FedEx.

Also, they don’t like the schedules and said the culture at FedEx isn’t what they thought compared to AA. Apparently the culture here was much more easy going on the flight deck compared to what they have thus far experienced there.

I also ran into a person not too long ago in newhire class here, that person left FedEx for AA after three years at Purple. They live in an AA base and said that made it super easy to leave, along with the fact that they hated the schedules and way of life.

To use your term, I’m not trying to ruffle any feathers either, just relaying a couple stories I know of personally.

I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I know I’ll get jumped for possibly giving an opinion other than “FedEx is the greatest thing ever”… I fly for AA and love it here. I have plenty of buddies who love FedEx, but also know of others who hated it and left.

You’ll get a million answers on this one, but trust your instinct. I would leave more for home based, but my opinion is about as worthless as it gets!

If you strictly want more money, go FedEx maybe. One thing even those who left said to me was “the money was phenomenal, but for xyz reason it wasn’t worth it to me so I left”… oh and neither had regrets about leaving purple.

If plan to stay around CLT, I would say AA. Great qol, tons of retirements and you can hold 8 hour day turns of CLT pretty easily. More family time, etc.

Either way, all the best in your decision making!

Unless your military buds worked at an airline, how would they know FedEx is so much better? The common thing I see is, anywhere is better than being active duty

because every drill the fedex guys sit in the corner and count their $100s, while the rest of us knife fight for 150% pay for terrible trips. At least they look exhausted and their families hate them, which makes me feel good.

Fact. Although I think everything is cyclical. When I first joined my reserve unit DAL and FedEx were the hottness. Now seems UAL has become the new go to. Like everything else in this industry, I'm sure it's cyclical with hiring waves, leadership, cultures, and contracts. Definitely coming from the military the airlines seem like a dream job. I flew with a CA recently that had been crediting about a 150 hrs over the past couple months and was still complaining about various airline issues (which were still legitimate) but reminded me of the scene from Dumb and Dumber where they were crying in bed wiping away their tears with 100 dollar bills.

Without reading any of the other answers…Fedex.
Dont walk, run.
Recession proof, war proof, one of the highest paid in the industry.
ACMI4Life

Committing to commute for your entire career makes me nauseous. I did a super easy commute for 8 years. It’s is legitimately night and day living in base. Don’t commute. Just don’t.

I've lived in CLT since 1990, I was USAir 1989-2003. Most of that time I had to commute. Sucked. Commuted to PIT, DCA, BOS, BWI, & PHL. When on occasion I could hold CLT that was great, even reserve was fine since I lived 20 minutes from the employee lot.

One of the things I liked best about NetJets was being home based. Huge stress reduction.

Now with Fedex in MEM maybe the commute wouldn't be so bad especially if you can reserve the jumpseat on FedEx. It's a tough call. FedEx is probably going to be a lot more secure than AA, although I suspect AA is "too big to fail". But CLT is senior at AA, or at least it used to be. You might want to take a look at what you could hold and see if you're going to be commuting anyway for some time.

CLT goes to new hires now. At most maybe one vacancy bid wait.