If making this choice and wanting to live in Nashville and ultimately fly WB for one of these two, I would assume ATL for Delta and IAD for United. Are both easily commutable from BNA?

Flowing is an option and the prospects of the bonus and MIA are attractive. I don’t want to give up even a month of seniority though. I think the coming recession will at best slow things quite a bit for a couple years and at worst we *might* see furloughs. Delta also seems to have far superior reserve rules than United. And I also think there is value in getting on a mainline seniority list and getting 1,000+ pilots junior to you as fast as possible *if* furloughs were to happen.

AA furloughed over 1600 with Covid, and a few thousand during 2001 and 2008. 1000 is a good start, but you will need a LOT more than that behind you to avoid furlough.

Congrats on having your pick of the Big 3. Nice work! It seems to me these days the UA folks are the least ****ed off, but the commute to IAD/EWR doesn’t sound great.

Delta does have pretty decent reserve rules. I’ve even intentionally bid reserve as a commuter and it’s just fine. Positive space commuting is nice too, but of course is not guaranteed to stay. The JS booking system is pretty good though; 5 days prior to your trip you can book the JS beginning at noon. Once you’ve booked it the JS is yours, even if a 30 year guy shows up (only rare exceptions are MEL’d JS, line check, FAA, etc). For junior people this is a markedly better system than what AA has, from what I understand. You mentioned your North Florida location offers 10-12 flights a day to ATL. I can only assume you’re talking about JAX, which does indeed have plenty of commuters, but I haven’t heard that it’s an awful commute or anything. Also far more daily flights from there to ATL v CLT/MIA/IAD/EWR, which frankly makes a huge difference in commuter QOL. Best of luck in your decision!

Contact AA recruiting and tell them about your job offers and see if you can get an interview ASAP. Supposedly it works… and you keep your bonus

AA jumpseat reservation is 8pm CT, 8 days prior. First come first serve. So… “markedly” better? What?

That's...bold. But awesome if it actually works. Let us know OP!

Guess I’m wrong. I had heard something about time of check in. Thanks for correcting.

Man you did a great job as interim Mec chair and on the BSL, don’t short yourself. You know how much of a dumpster fire that place is and the debt load. Come to DL or go to UAL. Great seniority progression at UAL and phenomenal union & unity, DL won’t be as easy to commute to ATL but hopefully there’s some growth to come and maybe the old farts will move out.

Nothing but respect for you, email your cjo to AA if you absolutely have to go that route, it does indeed work. But god please think about it

good luck!

I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, since you're a Delta pilot (or claim to be) but with profit sharing and other benefits, Delta is still leading the segment. I'll draw you the whole picture since you pretended to not know what I meant. "Go where you can stand to live but if you can stand to live in a Delta base, they do pretty well". Comprende? Feel better now?

Go fly a kite ya former Skywest United half wing troll. I've got more time inside the marker than you have in this whole industry. You're a laughing stock. Listen more, talk less and maybe you'll actually learn something.

You forgot to tell him to get off your lawn.

Being in north Florida , doesn’t this allow you to make the drive to ATL pretty easy ? A long drive is a still better than the commute I’ve done from from Florida to the Northeast for the last 13 years. The guys that can drive even as a back up , always kill the premium pay too

Its about a 5-6 hour drive. Not impossible but not great either.

I’d take Delta over United in your situation, a 5 hr drive is nice to have as a backup just in case especially around the holidays. I would at least send the AA recruiters an email and see if you can get an interview soon just to have another option. Which airline would you retire most senior at? Delta has hired a bunch of young pilots since 2014 but maybe retiring at number 1000 is better there than 500 at AA or UAL? I don’t know how tough the JAX-MIA commute is.

What's commuting like at UAL? can you reserve jumpseat? what's the commuter policy like?

Commuting is fine as long as you’re commuting from a place with a lot of frequency and not much competition for seats by other commuters. That being said, as long as you’re abiding by the commuter policy (below), there’s no repercussions for missing a trip other than losing the pay, assuming you’re off probabtion. Our reserve rules are very commuter non-friendly and probably the worst of any large carrier. No, you can’t reserve the jumpseat. It’s just seniority driven. Show up 1 sec before the doors close and you’re more senior than the other guy, then you get it. You do book it through the app, it’s just not a reservation like other carriers.

Commuter policy is that you must have a primary and a backup flight on any carrier that will get you there prior to report.

How bad is the commute from BNA to ATL for Delta? And from BNA to IAD for United?

Not a lot of flights to IAD. Much easier commute to EWR, particularly if you are bidding trips out of LGA. Tons of flights there.

Ah got it... How Junior is widebody flying out of EWR?

There were recent new hires offered wide bodies at the moment, but to hold a line as an IRO, you’d be looking at many years. It’s anyone’s guess as to how many years, though, given the COVID impact on international travel & the pace of hiring. When travel returns, people may flood the bids on top of you for a long time.

Not to mention half the seniority list retires in 10 years

How many hours of OE minimum if you are upgrading on the 737?

how does this even matter?

I'd be thankful if anyone could share some advice on what they think is best for me.

I live in central NJ, about 40 mins from EWR. UA seems the obvious choice due to the easy EWR drive but it seems like DAL may have better work rules. I have a young child at home and currently at corp where I get 15-18 days off a month. When I flew for the regionals I was good at "gaming" the system to maximize pay and QoL. I make around $270,000 (pay + retirement) now and getting back to that is important, but so is seeing my kid.

How far is your drive to JFK?

1+15 no traffic. Double that in rush hour.

Both are junior base at their respective airline so you will move up quickly. I don't know Delta's reserve callout time but if you can make it to the gate in about 2 hours or so you should be fine on reserve at DAL. With the current movement you might not be on reserve for long.

Round numbers for your scenario as a 2nd year reserve captain (easily attainable FOR NOW since so few want to be CA in EWR):

$260 x 73 min guarantee = $19K per month. You’ll be on reserve forever, but if you are just thinking about applying now the new contract will likely be here by the time you get here. Being on reserve for a period of years will be the main driver of your QOL rather than incremental contract differences that Delta may or may not have over United. Going forward I believe the main difference will be the huge disparity in number of widebody aircraft between the two.

Been here 5 years and just upgraded on the 75/76. Live in Bucks county so add 15 minutes to your drives. Life is good. The Kennedy drive really isn’t that bad. I would try to get on the ER as you get to avoid LaGuardia and the flying is way way better. I bid reserve and prefer week days off so it works for me. PM me if you have any specific questions.

If you are lucky enough to be awarded a widebody as a newhire at Delta you will not be senior enough to hold reserve. That’s how great our reserve rules are

if you want to see your kid bid 220 and you will work four days a month. Plus you will never have to sit FSB/ready reserve

all reserve is long call convertible to 6 days of short call a bid period. I average less than two a month. If you do get short call you need to be within three-ish hours of report, to any of the three nyc airports. You will be able to sit reserve at home

Something to keep in mind with the 220 advice, it may not always be that over staffed. My experience and that of others I’ve talked to is that on most fleets, if you are on call you will get called. The reserve setup at DAL is not bad at all when you are driving distance away at home.

delta doesn’t have a fixed reserve callout time. As long as OP can be promptly available at EWR, they are covered for short call at any NYC airport

I’m at DAL. Purposely bidding reserve because I think the QOL is better than being a junior line holder. And I commute.

UAL for the win. The shorter the drive the less the rest of the stuff matters. There’s a big difference every time you double your drive time to work. You can bid NB, get hours your first year, bid WB FO going into year 2 for the higher pay or upgrade to Captain once you get 1000hrs of 121 SIC time.

This guy gets it. Don't underestimate the value of premium pay. The best stuff always gets built at the last minute and you can massively improve your life if you are available to pick up the easy stuff and jettison the hard stuff. Ie. being close to the airport timewise has a LOT of value in being one of the few guys who can make a short notice departure happen.

A220 fo nyc. I fly maybe once every other month…

cheers to that brother!