True story. Even many of the ATL based pilots doing like it. 🤣

 

Two things can be true at the same time. Delta is awesome but ATL sucks. Thankfully I haven’t been there in a long time. We now have sims in SLC now which is useful for bounces.

 

This is why as a newbie to the business you have to ratchet back and take a really good look at the long view. Not casting shade at any one particular age group, because mine was just as guilty as any other, but it's really, really easy to get suckered into whatever version of SJS is currently the flavor of the month.

When I was a newb, and the earth was still cooling, I was chomping to get at any major. Guy I worked for took the time to sit me down (he worked for a famous major that evaporated overnight) and really laid out what to look out for any potential employer for the long term, and none of it was about where their bases were, new contracts or service, how many airplanes they have on order, or how shiny their new CEO is, because that all changes in an instant. Practically every airline changes their 5 year plan every 2 weeks.

The long and the short of it, you need to look at an operators "true" history to get a read on what they'll do, because once they get going, they rarely change. For practically all of the history of the industry, your best bet is to find a spot (which is usually the first spot offered) and ride it out. Yes, there are very, very brief interludes where there is some form portability, but if you are on the wrong side of it, you will be seriously bummed at the result. A lot of people talk about the "trunk" carriers hiring private pilots in the late 60s, but no one ever finishes the story about how nearly every one of them was furloughed, in some cases for a LONG time, in the early 70s after the energy crisis.

Ernie Gann said it best....defy "the numbers" at your own risk. And that was the 1940s. Nothing has changed in the game since then.

 

I don’t get the Atlanta hate.
ATL is the easiest major hub in the country. Nothing with half that volume is less complicated or painful. I just wish the food options were better…

 

The airport is not the issue…

Some pilots have extra personality issues and some GA have a power trip/lets show these pilots who’s in control issue.

 

Grab a 5 hour flight in 42B and then stay at the Sonesta for training and you will understand

Seriously though that hotel needs to be cleansed with fire.

 

ATL is a good place to live, but not to visit

 

Partly in good fun, but only partly. Your point is a common refrain from people, but that really has nothing to do with it. For me, it's the constant wheels up times, switching planes from the end of D to end of C almost every time I touch ATL and the dramatic increase in reroute likelihood. But mostly it's just becuase everyone hates VA Ave lol.

 

Man, the 717 must be the reroute machine. I’ve been rerouted outside of ATL more than in ATL the last year.
And wheels up times from small outstations are a pain, and your bird gets mostly small outstations….

 

Yup. This summer, coming from JAN, my wheels up time was longer than my scheduled flight time. It was a beautiful, weekday morning with no wx in the entire U.S., even dispatch was dumbfounded. Then, even though we were way late for our scheduled 55 min turn, we still had to do the C to D shuffle, even after asking to keep it. I just do my best to avoid ATL.

As far as reroutes, I don't get them often anymore, but that's because I mostly do turns. However, nearly evey reroute I received last year was doing flying that touched ATL. May just be my bad luck.