91 guy here...
 

Been sitting pretty at my 91 job for several years. No 121 time. Wife and I have to move to Baltimore for her job (she's the bread winner). It seems like WN is really the only option for me. We'll be close to BWI. Is it as bad as they say? Should I consider a home-based ACMI or fractional job? Maybe suffer the commute farther south into DC?

We’ll get a new contract eventually and it will be industry leading. That said, It’s not, nor will it ever be, the SWA pre 2000, but it’s better than a 91 gig. United would be my first though. You could hold 737/320 CA in Dulles within 18 months. You’d also cover DCA and BWI if you are Dulles based, but most of your trips would be out of Dulles. Worst case, you’d get Newark for a few months which is only a 3 hour drive from the Baltimore area. BWI upgrade at SWA is about 7.5 years. Good luck.

Don’t count your eggs before they hatch.

And how do you define industry leading?

For example, when it comes to compensation, will we have industry-leading NB rates, industry-leading rates, or industry-leading career compensation? There are big and substantive differences in how much money ends up in your pocketbook after X years depending on how you define “industry-leading” compensation.

Similar questions can be asked about other areas of our contract in terms of “legate is “industry-leading.”

And ya, go to UA if you’re going to be living in the DC metro area. Sure, things might turn around here. Maybe. But, right now, UA is the better option.

It is not as bad as some say on the forum. I live closer to DCA and IAD but make the drive to BWI and have 0 second thoughts. BWI is junior which actually means you’ll be on reserve a bit longer, unless the new contract takes out the section about giving hard lines to new hires. BWI has a good mix of flying if you want AMs or PMs- PMs rarely go out west, and do a lot of Florida flying and overnights. Plus a lot of short northeast flying- very few transcons. AMs do far more- not uncommon for day 1 to be BWI-LAS/LAX/PHX/SAN to another west coast destination and then get a long overnight.

You’ll make more year 1 here than anyone flying widebody at United with more days off. Year two will be fairly similar, year 3 and beyond they start out gaining us but I much prefer QOL and days off.

Any dc area base would be workable

If you prefer QoL and days off...don't come here. Our RSV language is some of the worst around. You have next to no flexibility on RSV. I have been on RSV for about a year and have not been used a total of one day.

I’m BWI based with SWA, but live closer to DCA/IAD. Been at SWA 6 yrs and leaving for United.
Reserve at SWA isn’t too bad, IF you live in base. But don’t expect to get paid to sit at home. Our reserve utilization is usually 90% or higher.
And BWI is weird seniority-wise. You’ll build seniority fairly quickly on the low end, but may end up sitting reserve longer because all new hires get a hard line their first month for consolidation. Since BWI is junior on the FO side, lots of new hires get assigned here out of training. Last month we had almost 100 new hires snatching up hard lines.
Strangely enough though, CA upgrades in BWI are still closer to 9-10 years (assuming you don’t want to commute to OAK).

Dude, not going down this road right now. We will get a really really good contract, or it’s a no vote from me. Happy?

Dude, bro, man. High five.

If we get anything near industry average to vote on, it'll be a first around here!