Honestly, I’d be careful giving advice to someone at SWA who lives in base to leave. That’s a good deal for anyone.

With the one exception of his statement "I don't want to fly 737s the rest of my career." Then it may or may not be such a good deal.

To Jungleman: I don't commute well (ask my wife :rolleyes:) so as soon as I could, I bid back to my home (a DL base) and my life was immeasurably better. You're going to have to decide between (1) 737 for your career, (2) commute, or (3) research the DL bases and move the family. I agree with the 'never commuters' out there because that's MY priority. Others have had a very successful (and satisfying) career doing the commute. Definitely talk it over with the family.

The LAX commuters from LAS/PHX often make it home before the "locals" who drive. OAK commuters don't have as many commute options. Assuming you live in one of those places and don't love the 737, DAL is a good option.

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I appreciate all of the input, I’m not totally against moving to base I was in SLC at OO. But PHX is where I’m at now and as one said the OAK commute was an absolute nightmare. We definitely have a good commuter policy at SWA so stressors of getting to work was low.
I guess my main focus is I want diversity of flying options. So again I appreciate all the input I really do.

I had a couple choices and Southwest was one of them. I chose Delta because, in my opinion, it was a better career path with more options that attracted me. I was thinking I’d just commute forever, but I’m 4 years into commuting and I almost can’t stand the thought of going to work now because of it. I’m uprooting my family and we are moving to base. Everyone’s situation is different, and I’ve flown with a lot of people that simply don’t mind the commute. That just isn’t me. Bottom line, if you come to Delta you’ll have a good career, but it’ll be even better if you can manage living in base.

PHX - LAX is one of the easiest commutes, however; even with hourly coverage much of the LAX flying is uncommutable. The first couple years would.probably require some hotel nights.
*I purposely avoided SWA in favor of DL and love the variety of equipment and flying.

Do you have a wife and kids? When Delta closed our Boston base in 1996 I wanted to move from my native NH, 45 miles north of BOS, down to ATL because I didn’t want to commute. I had (and still have!) a wife and 4 young kids, aged 1-8. My wife didn’t want to live in ATL, she wanted to live where her mother and grandmother could help her with the 4 kids when I was gone on trips. If Momma’s not happy, nobody’s happy, so we moved to the middle of nowhere; Sebring, FL, where her family was, and I’ve been commuting from MCO-ATL ever since.

Yes commuting sucks! I’m always watching The Weather Channel and checking flight loads and playing Jumpseat Roulette, but as I got more senior over the last 25 years and started flying more productive International 3 day, 27+hr trips, I was commuting less days per month. So it sucks a little less but it’s still the worst part of the job!

while on the topic, how is LAX as a base nowadays? Is it pretty junior? IE would one be able to get it off the gate once hired on? thanks!

The good news is there are 200+ unbid positions in LAX on the narrow body fleets. You could expect to get a base transfer to one of these (assuming you’re on that fleet type) on your first AE you’re eligible to bid on.

The bad news is WB B opportunities for LAX Pilots are far and few. Currently it takes about 8 years of seniority to be the plug on the WB B list at LAX. LAX350B is the last wall of old school WB B seniority to remain standing across all bases at Delta.

It's only 60 pilots. Any category that small is a tough nut to crack. Pre-covid LAX 777 B was 100 pilots, so it has effectively shrunk by 40%. If/when it grows it may drop a few years. It is also the only commutable category in LAX. The average LAX NB trip either leaves at 5am, gets back at 10pm, or in the case of A320, both. It actually makes NYC NB look good by comparison.