Looking 70 when you're 50 or not commuting. Very tough decision.

He will not have to worry about drones taking his job.

...exactly none of which are capable of virtually any of the actual missions of the F-35 in a denied environment.

This is a ridiculous argument to use to support your position for many reasons.

First, the military likes unmanned vehicles not because of their cost (the mil does not have a profit motive), but because of the reduced risk to humans in a hostile combat environment. The airlines do have a profit motive, and do care about costs. It would have to be cheaper for a company to not only modify every one of their aircraft for this single-pilot operation, but to also pay for the satellite bandwidth and the technology infrastructure at the company to make it operate, than to simply employ a human pilot.

Second, the above comparison of the F-35 vs Pred is akin to saying that FX or UPS can buy 1,000,000 quadcopters for what it costs to buy a new 777. It is an interesting number, but totally irrelevant because those quadcopters can't do what a 777 does, no matter how many of them are on property.

Eventually is this going to be a technology used in airline travel? Yes, without a doubt.

In the career-spans of anyone reading this forum today? Not likely. People have been declaring that the cargo operators are going to go unmanned for literally two decades so far...and we're zero steps closer to it today than in 1997.

Everyone's out of a job once those flying cars take air.....

Beware of Hong Kong. I hear they changed their tax laws-so that some foreigners essentially get taxed twice.

This is irrelevant to FDX pilots.

The company pays any and all HK and mainland China taxes for you.

Fdx also writes the tax check to Germany too for CGN based pilots.

In any case, I'd probably go to FDX.

It's less "fun" but pays more for blocking far less per year than pax guys do.

Commuting here isn't like other airlines either.

The "gold standard" for domestic bid packs is 7 on / 7 off. The gold standard for the 777 and MD-11 is what we call "single departure lines". Ie, one x 12-13 day trip per month. We have guys that live in Medellin for godsakes

When you commute once or twice per month, it's a different game than passenger airlines.

However as a bottom MEM 757 or 767 guy, you likely won't hold week on / week off for a while and will suffer some "shotgun pattern" type lines.

Plenty of former JB folks at FedEx. Know any? Get their take...

Your threat is a merger. As an ALPA carrier, your reaction should be "so what?". Ending up at UAL won't be a pay cut even if your blended seniority puts you on the right seat of a WB. Stapling likely ended with AA/TWA.

Your threats at FedEx are A) hating the job and B) new management as FS moves on into retirement. The latter may or may not be an issue, but only time will tell. The former will be largely individual preference.

I had class dates for both in Jan 2002. I was 36. I would have been about 250-275 on seniority list at JB. I liked the Neeleman vision, and met Al Spain and thought he was a pretty neat guy. But after 9/11, I chose FedEx for stability, ease of commute, and long term upside. The first year or two hearing a "Jetblue" callsign on a red-eye transcon while I was plumbing the 727 wasn't fun, as I knew I could have been an A320 captain at about 8 months on the property. By year 3 when I was in the right seat, however, I realized the flexibility of FedEx and the pay I was making were probably better than I would have had even in the left seat. I quit looking at JB with any envy.

A couple years later--flying the MD-11 to Paris, Sydney, Japan, Hong Kong, India, etc I realized what an incredible opportunity I had at FedEx. The type of flying, lack of dealing with passengers and FAs, and the very lucrative nature of the flying blew well past what I could have experienced at jB.

For you...at 40....you have a 5-7 year wait (likely) for any left seat. You can go VFR direct to a WB right seat, however, and probably be very close to what you make now if not more at FedEx, with some great healthcare, insurance, and retirement benefits. Once you learn the ropes of flying back side of the clock or can hold day flying, you'll appreciate the simplicity of the job by eliminating many of the issues that come with the pax business. You'll have 25 years to max out a pension or pour money into a blended B fund type plan if we ever go that route. And you will have a huge variety of flying and bases to chose from that work for you.

But--its a pay cut for a year, maybe two, and nobody is gonna call you captain a while. Nobody in the terminal is going to swoon over your uniform. Your family won't be able to just hop a trip to Aruba when there is an empty seat.

Good news is either way you'll have a job people would love to have. The "wrong" answer is still a great job. What I think that means is you can make the choice without worrying about hurting your family, and instead just listen to your heart and do what you WANT to do. And you are the only guy who probably knows the real answer...

Not enough money in the world to get me to do that job. I'd rather keep my health.

LOL right! We can't even get the FAA to sign off on letting us have ownship positioning on our surface 3s...

So the military's budget is irrelevant {cough.. sequester} and there is no interest in expanding the mission capability of drone aircraft. Got it, thanks! Sh!t, what was I thinking.