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Originally Posted by RJSAviator76
Only you know what's right for you and your family. Something to keep in mind... roughly 4,000 pilots hired at United just between 2021 and today. Think of the effect on your seniority down the road.
Delta has been hiring since 2014 and they've been gunning for the younger crowd.... the movement over there is also gonna be rather stagnant down the road.
I understand the anger and the angst about this place, but don't disregard the numbers.
Best of luck whatever you end up doing.
All great points. I'll add another. I was USAir in the late 90s, and every day the news media and the company would cry that the airline was only days from closing the doors. They furloughed till they hired then hired till they furloughed. They went through bankruptcy twice while I was on furlough. They closed their biggest hub and tried everything from Metrojet to MidAtlantic to keep the lights on. So when the recall finally came in around 07 or so, I just assumed they were going out of business eventually. Wasn't worth gambling my family's future on them.
Look at them now.
What I didn't understand then, and I wish I had, was that the seniority number was worth something. The likelihood that they were going to liquidate was slim to none and thanks to good fragmentation language that number would likely result in employment at some airline even if USAir were sold in pieces. Yeah they had a tough decade or two, but now my classmates from there are doing pretty darned good - far ahead of where I am on career earnings, retirement, and schedule.
What's the old saying? Don't throw out the baby with the bath water. There's still a lot of value in SWA and the likelihood that BoJo hangs a going out of business sign on the door is much lower than the company being sold in pieces and pilots going with planes. Might as well take that seniority with you.
May you live in interesting times.
(PS - If you were hired prior to 2014 you should probably go through. Especially if you're based in Dallas. 😏