Thread bump.
Lots of great info in here. Seems almost like a no-brainer, just looking for more perspective.
2nd year JB bus FO. Decent schedule, love the layovers, good hotels, get mostly what I want as far destinations and am generally happy. With a lot of schedule manipulation I can swap out of redeyes. Live basically in domicile, can sit short call at home, but it's a two hour drive to JFK (barring Verrazano problems etc), and our rsv rules are industry trailing.
That said, insurance is awful, no retirements, all movement based on growth, I'll be 56 by the time I'm top 2000, retire at around number 700. Pay rates are below peers, only on first contract with a LOT of room for improvement.
UPS... My app recently "locked", have several internal recs, and a couple thousand hours flying international freight. Live in PHL, so eventually commute would be very easy, and hopefully could drop commercials and start/end in PHL sometimes. Would love to bid 75/76z. Not sure how long it would take to do that, and then how long to hold decent trips. (For reference, I've seen the bid packs, and would prefer the 6-10 day European trips.) I realize I'd be doing a lot of less desirable flying for a while first, I'm fine with that. Pay rates blow JB out of the water. Second year FO with the TA is better than 190 Captain at JB, which I'm still two years from holding. GREAT insurance, LTD, pension, etc. And from everyone I know who speaks of it, the IPA is amazing. And retirements. The movement at UPS is going to start getting quick sooner than later.

Maybe I just needed to type it all out, because like I said, it seems like a no brainer. I do like the good JB layovers, though. Hoping I can eventually find some at UPS.

I made the jump, I can talk to you. So far no regrets!! As far as culture....this isn't a typical airline so still getting adjusted to it.
A great time to be here and a great group of pilots.

Looks like you just did type it out!
C'mon in, the waters fine!

Perspective from a relatively new Z FO - seniority moves much slower on the Z, so those trips you want are probably several years out....but, even being very junior I have had a lot of luck getting those trips through trades, VTOs, and VTORs - and they almost always start from PHL or EWR. My point is that staying in your current situation will probably be fine, and if you jump ship you potentially face years where you wonder if you made the right choice (although not from a money/benefit perspective), but if you power through the short term I think the upside is well worth it....and soon enough, you’ll be on your 6th week of vacation about to start a trip that begins and ends with an SDF-PHL DH wondering how you got so much money in your B plan. If you were at a legacy carrier I might give different advice because there are so many uncertainties in this business and I think at some point you just pick your horse, but given the choice you may have, the upside at UPS is so much more. Good luck. The opinions expressed in this post are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of APC or its very vocal anti Cargo contingent.

This was really helpful for me. Good luck with your decision I hope I make the right move too.

Just to give him the correct info:
vacation is 1-4 yrs 14 days
5-10yrs 21 days
11-19yrs 28 days
20+ 35 days

True...but you can turn those two weeks into 6-8 weeks off...

And that’s without ever dropping below min guarantee

....and as a year 2 FO I had 5 weeks off, and it could have been 6 but I didn’t want to sit reserve when I came back. I can’t imagine that it would be difficult for a year 5 FO to do it if it was so easy for me, and since I was talking the future, I stand by my statement.

fair enough. You can use 14 days of vacation and achieve 6 weeks off in a row. Those 6 weeks are generally preceded by 14 days on duty and followed by 14 days on duty