tennisguru

For me it would come down to Frontier or Delta. The southwest culture of today is nothing like the good old days of yore. They’re turning into more of a legacy airline on the culture front each year from what I hear from my friends over there. It’s not a bad place to work, but it’s not all rainbows and unicorns either. Couple that with the long upgrade and MCO being senior it just makes it the worse of the three choices.

So it comes down to money vs quality of life. Frontier being home based wins the QOL battle hands down, but your type of flying is topped out the day you start. Delta would seem to offer better pay over a career (depending on when you could/would upgrade at either place). But obviously you’d be commuting for 30 years. And Delta offers WB flying at some point in your career.

tcco94

I would say do some research on the trips at Southwest because the company culture like you said above is not the same today. The cult like atmosphere is run thin when you force your crews to work brutally fatiguing trips. That being said it really is not much better here on the domestic side. Only difference here is you can fly a southwest schedule in the left seat as a new hire pretty much vs doing it in right seat at Southwest for many years. Always remember bases are not forever and with this Spirit/Frontier merger anything is really on the tables.

but I have no clue what pilot would contemplated Delta/SWA vs Frontier for a drive to work. That’s being shortsighted in the long term cost if you ask me, even considering QOL in that cost.

el_duderino

I wouldnt base decisions on first year pay alone...very short sighted and likely to change sooner than later.

JoeFever1

Very very interesting question. I’d try to find some Delta TPA commuters and see what they say. I’ve heard commuting at delta can be so easy it hardly feels like commuting. I’m sure that depends on where you live and what schedule you can hold.
SWA seems like the safe choice. Kinda depends on where you live in TPA and how senior MCO is. I think it’s kinda senior?
If wanted to be home the most, by a long shot, Frontier is the choice. It may even be the best choice, but I don’t know how you turn down Delta. I know I probably couldn’t.

iaflyer

33 years to look at a career.. It's gonna change a lot - what you see today is a far cry from what it will be in 5 or 10 years. Here's my take:

Frontier - and eventually the merged airline - there's a reason everyone bails quickly - whether it's the contract, the trips, the management, or non-rev privileges - if people are leaving for other airlines, there's a reason.

Southwest - upgrade is loooong. That also mean you'll be stuck as a junior FO for a loooong time. I've got two good friends there - As for company culture - it's not what it was in the book "Nuts" anymore. Herb is long gone and it's a place to work now. Those neat company parties? Nope. Maybe in Dallas for the HQ people but not everyone else. The line I've gotten from my friends there is the FO's are seen as the "hired help" while the Capt shows up 25 minutes to push and ask, "is everything done?" Also, nothing is commutable on both ends - Trips either have AM starts (early) or afternoons (that end late). Upgrade time is more than a decade I believe.

Delta - right now, the NB fleet is a hard working fleet, but that is an issue because we got behind with COVID and a lot of airplanes are being delivered. But not as bad as everyone makes it out to be - my reserve trip that starts today has 1 leg, then 2 legs, then a short DH, then 1 leg home. Perfectly fine to me. QOL on the wide bodies is excellent, which the other two don't have. Because the NB fleet is harder working, upgrade time is low. As my FO said the other day, I can be at 75% in the right seat, or 90% in the left seat. Not much difference in schedule he said.. so he's going to the left seat.

Gr8honeybadger

Depends on how much you like money. With Delta's contract and profit sharing over 33 years you are probably leaving about $2 - 3M on the table by not going to delta. That is straight cash, not factoring in time value of money and investing that cash over time. You can buy a whole lot of quality of life for that. If you had only 12 - 15 years left it would be a harder choice. Culture at SWA from what I am told isn't what it use to be and you work your ass in order to make a lot there.

Aero1900

With a young family living in Tampa, Frontier will give you best quality of life for you and your family. Tampa has a ton of day turns, nearly no redeyes and you don't have to commute.

Margaritaville

Frontier. You should definitely go to Frontier. Lol.

Why would anyone want to put up with all the benefits of working at a legacy airline over an LCC. Lol.

Madness, I tell ya.

Not even a good troll post.

weflyurelax

If he’s not a 121 guy, he really doesn’t know what direction to take. He’s got 3 options and wants the best for him and his family, why can’t he ask questions in hopes of finding an answer here? Come on

Margaritaville

It's called doing your own research. Versus asking the opinions of a bunch of random anonymous strangers with questionable motives and basing life choices on that.