I would think so, my new hire class had maybe 2 Delta and 8 AA guys. They all went back. Circa 1996...

Lots of good points raised here. I will be shocked if passenger loads are only at 30% by Christmas. People want to get back to normal, and the longer this lasts the more they will push to get back to work and return to normalcy, virus or not.
The economy is already slowly spooling up again. Governments are throwing money at the problem to minimize long term damage. Half the country is already convinced that it never was a problem in the first place. I guess I’m still optimistic on a steady recovery.

I would consider a quick upgrade somewhere. We’ve had guys go to purple and brown. One claimed the schedule and quality of life were better but pay wasn’t what guys made it out to be. If you have seniority at a major I see no reason to leave it, things will come back. As mentioned above most those guys that go to box haulers normally go back to pax when called.

Survival has always been key whether it’s run to cargo, back to last outfit, fallback on previous non-aviation industry related profession, or jumping back to Guard or Reserve. Gotta do what gotta do.

Turns out COVID was the first to push pilots out of the cockpit!

With so many excess pilots, it’s cheaper to use them, than invent a new airplane. You just have to look at the Max or the now shelved 797 to see what aerospace companies think about creating a new airplane.

idk pretty sure all airplanes are being replaced with high speed rail. Especially effective for trans oceanic routes.

^^^^^^^^^this!!^^^^^:d

Cargo doesn't give your family travel benefits, something to consider if you use that. It seams most of my flying at an ACMI is during daylight hours, but changing 6+ time zones, it is irrelevant. Every year around Christmas, I get to experience UPS and Fed Ex domestic flying schedules and I can honestly say I hate all of them. Definently the worst flying I do at my ACMI. Go Fed Ex and UPS for the money, go international ACMI for the better and more interesting flying. I've done pax flying, never again. Never flew for a major, don't care. The pax mission I hate as much as I hate the public, the smurfs, gate agents, non-reving, paying for hotels, flying in a day early, etc. There's always a few good FA's, but the majority of them only serve to add drama to your job.
Pax flying is affected greatly by socio/economic natural/man made conditions. Where I work, when the economy is doing great, so am I. When the crap hits the fan, I do even better. When things go bad for cargo/acmi, pax will soon follow.
It's all a crap shoot, make a decision and get lucky!!

Can’t speak for FedEx, but at UPS family can use ZED on Delta, Southwest, Lufthansa, Air Canada, and several others after six months. But they pay you enough to buy positive-space tickets so I don’t know many people who hassle with it.

Do cargo schedules suck? Some do, just like some passenger schedules and ACMI schedules suck. An ACMI carrier flying contract at peak isn’t getting the best lines and that flying certainly isn’t representative. You can fly a great schedule here and make great money, even as a junior FO, or it can totally suck. Somewhat fleet dependent and, like any airline, very dependent on where you choose to live. But this is the only place where I’ve seen junior FOs breaking $300k/yr with what often seems like a part-time job. Folks should do contract comparisons for themselves before they draw any conclusions. YMMV.

I grew up in an airline family. We used Non Rev travel privileges to go all over. Then I worked for a regional and then a smaller major with pass bennies and we used them fairly often. In the last 10 years I have rarely been on a flight that wasn't at or very nearly at capacity. I live in the Orlando area and flights are almost always sold out. COVID may change that but in recent times I don't think pass benefits are worth much to a family. You rarely can use them. I use miles and go when I want without the stress of eyeing everyone walking up to the counter to see if they are going to bump us off the flight.