If you’re putting ‘culture’ before ‘seniority’ you’re comparing a belief vs facts. The hard part is figuring out if the belief is true or just whining. The facts, and assumptions that come from that, are easier to analyze.

Cut through all the drama and most guys enjoy working at AA. The same is probably true at every major airline.

What a nice problem to have. Congrats!

I was hell bent on Delta for a long time, but because life is what happens when you’re making other plans, Airways called me first. I’m not one to bounce around, so I let the Delta dream go pretty much right there. Whether that was a good call or not, as others have said I’ll let you know when I retire. :)

As much *****ing is as done on APC about AA (and a lot of it is certainly justified), it’s been a fantastic place to work. The day to day job and the people I work with are great, at least in our NYC base. All things being equal Delta has the better contract and that’s where I’d go, but it’s like having your choice of banging various supermodels. There’s really no way to go *wrong*.

Much like Slice said, if you go by internet buzz you’re getting a skewed picture. I browse here when off thinking my company/job (AA FO) sucks, then I go to work and it’s pretty darn good most days. Having said that, my observations of DAL are internet hearsay, so TIFWIW.

So you have the seniority issue, which drives virtually all other things. You should end up more senior at AA, but frankly the DAL experience seems to be front loaded significantly. By that I mean you will be paid more, quicker there by a significant margin, particularly if you want the quick upgrade. You want late career seniority? Maybe better to invest all that early extra money and retire earlier - I’d imagine that yields a much better schedule than top 10% at AA.

And, wrt AA, I am genuinely concerned with our ability to keep up with retirements. We seem to be trending lower on newhires four years into the hiring process (announced 900 for this year, now saying 700-750, but running an early pace of about 600). While current staffing seems ok, if they cannot manage to increase our training throughput very soon we will be forced to shrink due to retirements, negating that perceived advantage.

I would honestly think your best life would be facilitated by picking the one that has a very strong base in an area to which you’re willing to move and going (and moving) there (btw recent ORD news is concerning for AA). I have commuted for a few years on various occasions; was furloughed from USAir in 2001 and declined my 2007 recall because I valued family time and locale over career (yes, now I’m a 2014 hire at AA 2500 numbers junior to myself, so WTHDIK!? But I did see almost every one of my kids' award ceremonies, plays, games, etc. by not commuting and we had tons of help from and time with family by staying in DFW). But, if you really plan to commute for your entire career, then I would probably lean to Delta because their contract seems to be measurably better than ours and our union is lacking. I honestly don’t expect to be above them with our next contract.

Good luck, it’s a tough call. Either way you will have a great career!

Big D.


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Thank you all for taking the time to share your advice and opinions. It's helpful and appreciated. I know I can't go wrong with either airline and am extremely lucky to have the option. This helps to widen my base and exhaust all the research I can between the two airlines.

I commute to a job at Delta and am very happy here. My friends at American love their job but hate their employer. And are jealous of my pay and contract.

Contracts come and go. All DL has over AA now is higher profit sharing and i would expect AA to take care of that in the next contract.

Those 4000 young guys delta has hired in the past 4 years will be senior to you for a long time. I’d say AA.

DAL pros:
Better compensation
Better work rules
No east vs. west drama
Significantly less debt
Less regional flying

AA pros:
Less hiring since 2014 and more retirements in the near future
More international flying
Leather jacket and no hat or double breasted coat

Post back after you retire and let us know which was the right choice

East west drama is pretty rare now in my experience. The integration has been very smooth. We aren’t allowed to wear leather jackets anymore.

As someone else said, I think the benefit of going to DAL is front loaded (which is good with TVM). AA’s seniority benefit will kick in in about 4 years and will be huge at the end of a career.

Hourly rates are the same. Profit sharing at DL is the only thing better. That should be addressed in the next contract in a year or two so the compensation will pretty much be equal.

What work rules are better? AA will have average calendar day soon. That was the big issue and its fixed.

More regional flying at aa could be seen as a good thing if the pilot shortage causes them to bring regional flying in house. AA would need a lot more bodies. Delta has brought a lot in house already so the hiring for that won’t help a new guy bc they’re all senior to them.

There is no east west drama. Go to work. Go home. Get paid. “Cultural” issues are an internet thing.

I hope you guess right!