Yes. Captains over there are making $250,000 to $300,000+ /year with more time off/home than our Captains. Certain things in their contracts aren’t as good as ours, sure. But a lot of things are better. It’s like I said above… The legacies have always been the perceived pinnacle of this career. And because of that they have always been perceived as the airlines/jobs with the top pay. And thus they have had no issues staffing their flying at mainline. The LCCs and ULCCs and obviously the regionals have had to figure out how to staff their flying and unsurprisingly they’ve figured out that money and quality of life seems to do the trick. So most (except Allegiant) seem to pay pretty comparably (especially if you take premium flying into account) and have better quality of life/flexibility than the legacy carriers. It may not be that way when the legacies get new contracts. But that’s the way it is now.

Our pilots are too busy gobbling up green slips and chasing the short-term money to realize there is a whole gob or long-term money out there for the taking. Other airlines / sectors of the industry have found it haphazardly by running short of pilots to fly the airplanes, necessitating contract/pay improvements. We are still woefully short staffed at Delta. Just wouldn’t know it with the number of green slips that get picked up. We aren’t exerting and *real leverage.

This.. As a hired in late 30s (and mid 40s now) guy here is my families take. Wife is from upstate NY, I'm from rural Massachusetts.
I retired from the reserves last December, and we have nothing really holding us to Norfolk/Va Beach anymore. Neither of us are super close to family in a "I must live within X hours of Mom/Dad/Siblings". FWIW, my mom is in FL, her dad is in NY. My brother is in MI, hers in DFW.
My "requirement" to move is "I want to be able to sit short call on my couch"

NYC: Too darn expensive to live anywhere acceptable within "short call on my couch" range. Like I can't afford a decent single family home as a NB Captain.
MEDIAN home sale on Long Island.. $620k, and that's with a lot of "I'm not living there" north of 1/2M. Oh, and you will have around $12,000 a year property tax on said $620k house.
It's a no go based on we can't have a decent house in the suburbs without being housepoor, especially once income tax and property tax are factored in.

ATL: It's not cheap anymore. I was too old when hired, so I'll always be junior there. She kind of likes the metro, but HATES PTC with a passion (she has visited there with Navy friends).

MSP: Senior as hell, nuclear winters. Seems somewhat affordable.

DTW: I would move back (I went to college in MI) and live on a lake or next to a state forest or near the ORV trail system and hour or two west of Ann Arbor. Wife is scared of the crime. (despite me and others telling her 8 mile and RoboCop are not technically documentaries)
She also freaks out over Roger and Me (I went to college with the rabbit lady's daughter if you've seen the film). It is probably the most affordable of all our hubs. Her non joking dislike of it is the schools are kind of crap in the places she's been looking. The places with decent schools that she finds culturally compatible (West Bloomfileld, wife is Jewish) are kind of meh for me.
It's honestly the hub we are most likely to move to once I get a bit more senior, but she wants a place on the Gulf Coast to avoid winter.

SLC: We lived in this neck of the woods. She doesn't want to subject kids to being the only Jewish kids in a LDS area. Been there, seen that with other friends.

SEA: Like the place better than NY, but the housing market is rough.

LAX: We love the area (aside from taxes/some laws) because we are both big time motocross/dirtbike people (we fly to CA 3-4X a year to go to certain races, our vacation is usually centered around doing some sort of motocross or dirtbike thing)
But the housing market is untenable. We were just there last month, and we couldn't find anything we could afford that hit our min requirements. (3/2, 2 car garage, non postage stamp yard, sit short call on couch, not in the hood)

BOS: We have thought of it but after CVG closing, we aren't exactly ready to move to a 1 category base, because then we will have moved and I'm now just in the "normally commute by air, but can drive if loads suck" just from the other direction to NYC. Would likely live in NH, SE VT or SW Maine.

Whoa, speak for yourself there! That is quite a sweeping statement. Delta has what, seven bases? If you don't already live somewhere else or have family somewhere else and can't manage to stomach even one of Delta's bases then maybe that's on you.

What bases do you think are appealing? No offense to TX and FL, but not everyone wants to live there.

I get your point by the way, but sheesh.

This is the first time I've heard this. Don't get me wrong, we need major improvements, but don't go overboard on the hyperbole.
Not a single base? Remotely appealing? There are plenty of reasons to complain, but short of home basing we have pretty good bases unless you live in another major's hub.

You're in "old man yells at cloud" level here. Stick to the complaints such as pilots living in x region would rather base with UA, AA, SWA etc instead of trying to speak for everyone else.

So your requirements are "sit shortfall from my couch and have seniority I want" You can even be in AL and be in short call range. And PTC is not a required address.

This also doesn't fit your statement. Please name a base a major has that you *would* move to.

But here is my question: Why are we the ONLY major/LCC without a TX or FL base?

I can get no FL because it's really close to ATL, but we don't have much of anything in the great plains/east side of the rockies.

DEN is what? UA, SWA, F9

IAH UA
HOU SWA
DFW AA, Spirit
DAL SWA

FL has everyone but UA and DL

There are a lot of "Tax advantaged" places we could put a hub in. Heck we have FA bases. But we'd have to have network stop ssharpshooting on a weekly basis the best fleet to put in base X

As a 320 guy, I think we might be the "lets go try a base" fleet, as the 321NEO takes over the lower end of the ER flying, and the 319 is pretty small. But even then who knows. FAs just need X departures a day to make a base work. We need Y departures on one fleet consistently year round to make a pilot base work.

Having lived in both states, no thanks. But have at it. I prefer bases where our air line makes the most money.

Judging from the amount of flying we do to FL, and the number of FA bases there (2), I think we make plenty in FL.

Devil’s advocate here. If ACMI can make home basing work, why cant we? Not for 1 day trips perhaps but stilm.

Small bases in both TX and FL would be huge from a recruiting and retention standpoint. Both are desirable places to live for many and are experiencing rapid growth.

DFW is currently on pace to surpass Chicago to become the 3rd largest metro area in the U.S., putting it behind only NYC and Los Angeles. AUS saw 33% growth in the past decade. The idea that Delta can’t make money in TX or FL is insane.