If you just finished training you got in at the start of a big wave. Don’t leave

I’m sitting waiting for OE… and I got a pretty decent schedule for my first bid month. I may sit reserve in Jan/Feb, but otherwise I expect to hold a line.

There's no profit sharing right now so they're pretty matched up there. Structurally, the formulas are pretty similar (DL comes out a bit ahead) and DL has had better years in the past but "past performance and all..."

Congrats,

I believe United is behind pilot size, so most things being equal you would become senior faster at United. as some have mentioned of United starts you first, go there and see how you like it, then decide to stay or start at Delta. either way you can’t go wrong. it’s an amazing problem to have. good luck.

TIme to hold a line at the junior bases is less than the time to finish OE. So unless you're intending to bid reserve to leverage seniority into specific days off, I wouldn't factor reserve rules too heavily. Global Reserve notwithstanding, of course; if you bid 777/787 expect reserve for years. But at Delta you wouldn't be int'l widebody for a while anyway, so maybe that's a push.

As for seniority, I saw a slide somewhere that said 50% of the United pilot group will have turned over by 2030. To put it another way, as a new hire you'll be 50% seniority in 8 years, assume no growth or shrinkage. If true that's an amazing thing to think about. I have no idea what long-term seniority looks like at Delta though, maybe it's even better. Either way, yours is a good problem to have. Good luck!

I say famous last words because well, it's an airline. :) When I was hired at my first airline upgrade was 2 years and everyone said you'll barely be on RSV so don't worry that the RSV rules suck. Instead I slogged through 2.5 years of RSV and never held CA in 9 years. :rolleyes: But I digress.

We just had a bid at DAL and WB FO just went super senior because the NB skeds are not great...so if he wants WB UAL is the place to go.

I appreciate all the replies. I’m really surprised that the near universal advice is to stick with UAL. I figured it would be more split. Definitely food for thought.

You only give up seniority at a major for a very compelling reason. Absent a base preference there’s no compelling reason to move between united and delta either way

I'd take every inch of seniority I can get. So I'd stay at United

DL has hired almost 6000 since 2014. United not as many. United has more in house international.

Stick with UAL. Scott Kirby seems to want to run the airline well for the long run.

-Delta pilot