I left out a relatively important detail that I blew my UA interview. Otherwise I’d 100% be there now. Cant even reapply until November and by the time I’d be able to reinterview and be in class it would be harder to leave SW. And with DL on the table right now, I feel as though I need to decide between these two

 

No question for me, I would stay at SWA in your shoes.
The QOL that you are going to have by being in the top tier of the seniority list for a long time is difficult to overstate. Most folks only spend a very short time in that bracket. 5 weeks of vacation with staggered weeks nets you three months off. You will be off a quarter of the year. Go to Italy and the south of France for that time and spend it with your family.
I have traveled the world by myself. It's cool to do once. It gets old quick.
Sounds like you figured out the driving vs flying to work thing. That is absolutely number one. Relative seniority would be number two for me. All the other stuff is a distant third. A lot of SWA guys will tell you that you would be crazy staying here, but most of them are just parroting what they have heard around the shop lately because we are in very contentious contract negotiations.

 

Thats easy. Delta then reapply to UAL.

 

A very dear friend just left SWA after almost 6 years on the property for Delta. He will most likely upgrade there before he would upgrade here.... and he was in the 70 percentile seniority here. He also wants to fly a wide body at some point, and that just isn't happening here. He gambled by giving up a rather good seniority at Southwest to start at the bottom of the mighty Delta. Whether he made the right decision will be answered when he turns 65 or 67.

On the other hand, Delta has been hiring some pretty big numbers since 2014 and they've hired a lot of younger folks, especially early on when they were passing up on high time RJ captains in favor of younger and lower time FO's which I think could lead to stagnation down the line at Delta. Lots of choices at Delta though... Choices at Southwest are more limited because of single type fleet, though I like Southwest base options better than most, and living in base is key.

I do recall being a newhire prior to our current contract how annoying it was for captains to always be badgering me about applying elsewhere because they were pi$$ed off due to contract without so much as knowing a single thing about me - just looking at my employee number.

It is what it is, but I certainly wouldn't consider one's career a failure or a miss if they made it at Southwest. Lots of money to be made here as well.

 

Without fail it’s the first question I get and yes, it is annoying. I’m no young whiper snapper either so give me a little credit lol.

In all seriousness though there are far worse places to be than WN. If you live in base here and don’t get hung up on the 737 it’s not so bad.

Perfect, hell no. Are there issues worth walking for heck yeah. We will get there or we will strike.

 

I’m early 40’s. Turned down a UAL interview when I was hired here. Recently upgraded at SWA. I could go to UAL and take a paycut for a year or so to fly WB or work in the training center. But I’ve no desire to start over or commute, even for a week. Might be shortsighted…but I’m fine driving to work for $350k+ a year. Money isn’t everything….no matter what people on here say.

My parents are close to retirement and make low $100’s with less than $500k in their 401k. At their age I’ll have $4-6mil depending on the market. If you need more than that you’ve got money problems and need Dave Ramsey.

 

Good luck to him. FYI, the latest upgrade awards are 2017 hires as you probably know. A tough decision but I am sure he thought about it hard enough.

 

I guess I’m the dear friend of RJS…at least I think I am. 🤪. It was not an easy decision to make, so far I’m very happy with it but I will let you know in 22 years how it all worked out. I got based at home out the gate and on a plane I’m intimately familiar with so not a bad start. I’m blessed with being able to financially weather being a new hire as I have business interests outside of aviation which I can lean on. Also, I have a family that is very supportive and without that, I wouldn’t even dare to think about it. The career prognosis is better overall barring unseen events, but just like all of us, I’ll cross those bridges as we get to them. As an aside, Southwest was also great and I will miss the people terribly!

In a previous life I flew long haul international and my goal is to get on the 330 or 350 fleet and chill but in the meantime I’m hoping for a fast NB upgrade or perhaps quick seniority movement in my base. Taking it a day at a time, so far have the month of July mostly off so back to the beach…

Happy to answer any questions to anyone, here or by PM. I’ll give the good and the bad.

Cheers,
Stay Frosty

 

I'd ask myself why I applied and put in the effort to get hired at delta?
must be a pretty good reason you did all that. A delta person I know said go to delta. They are light years ahead of us in work rules etc, more options, better financial outlook as a company and they want to hore another 1000 this yr. Plus thousands more next yr.
with that much time left you'll definitely be wat ahead there.

 

If he wanted to fly wide bodies, what took him so long to leave?