yup. That’s why age matters when these questions are asked.

and nobody can predict an airlines business model or future aircraft purchases 20+ years from now. Business models change. CEO change. Businesses and countries change. Any talk about an airline 20+ years from now is pure speculation.

which is awesome for those prescient enough to get hired by delta in 2016. However many thousand hired since then will offer a different landscape to DL newhires today

Are you talking about the planes that pay slightly more than a 737? Do those guys/gals also get to fly the 764 that actually has widebody pay rates?

yuup. Who knows what the future holds for any of them. I would say (larger) bases and retirements are the most solid things to base a decision off of but even those change (CVG would have been a “safe” base at DAL 20 years ago.

only about 3,500 pilots between jr 757/767 captain and a new hire, or about 7 years worth of retirements.

Was a 5 year pilot hired now?

I mentioned this in my post above, but someone hired today will have the same seniority# as that jr 75/76 CA (~9,100 at time of award) In about 6-7 years, if we hire only for attrition (highly likely we will hire more) someone hired today would have that same seniority in about the same amount of time, whether or not 75/76 stays that junior is another story…

And it depends on how many more WB positions will be flown by all those Joint Ventures. Something to also consider in the OPs choice.

you can be a wide body pilot pretty quick at Emirates or Atlas...or even SkyLeaseCargo

Tell me, is the profit sharing check going to be bigger for this year compared to last year? I really want to know. I bet there are a lot of zero’s in it.