Naw... just you and your fellow FUD spreading, trash-talking, pilot-group denigrating, company shill drama queens. Think you're helping our pilot group with your BS? During the record hiring spree, instead of guiding and motivating people to come here, having some professional pride and guts to do whatever it takes to get the industry-leading contract and then stay at the top, you and your FUD-spreading, trash-talking company shills sure seem hellbent on chasing away the good people, constantly cutting down the ones who stay as if you want this place to consist of nothing but those who can't get hired anywhere else. Yeah... that's a winning strategy...

Also, no rational person stays in a situation in which each day gets worse than the one before. So why are you still here? Are you a rational person? Or are you a drama queen?

Tough decision. Ultimately, as others have said, drive to work. I commute and often find myself with a beverage in hand on Zillow looking at real estate near our bases. I make the commute to LAS because I’m around 30% seniority and pretty much get the schedule I want for my commuting lifestyle. However, I was just on the hotel van with a UA FO that lives in PHX and commutes to LAS. He said it’s miserable, he’s also ~30% in base but can only hold red-eye lines, 4 day trips. So he was bidding back to LAX after a few months of testing the waters in Vegas.

Right now though here you’ll fly half a red-eye schedule plus a couple more legs, it’s well documented. If you fly AM’s you’ll be up at 3/4am, often times 2am on your body clock and fly three or four legs per day. PM’s are most of the time delayed and sometimes you’ll finish at 3/4am. Both suck, no end in sight. But so does a full red-eye schedule. Pick your poison, just drive to work whichever you choose.

Best of luck

This just isn’t accurate re: time to be a line holding captain, at AA at least. And definitely not just in NYC.

Life is more enjoyable finding the joy where you are rather than constantly looking for a better place to work. I joined SWA last fall and am having a great time. I enjoy my co-workers, make a good wage and feel confident in my future here. Decide where you want to be in 10 years, make a plan, then make a decision. SWA is not for everyone, but neither are the OAL's. Best of luck to you all.

My greatest regret was declining the recall to USAir after a 7 year furlough. I thought they were going out of business. They had been bankrupt twice and closed PIT. Competition was pouring into PHL. And I was living in Arkansas at the time and would have had to, at least for a little while, commute to Philly, leaving my wife and an infant son behind. Still, with all that, I deeply regret giving up that seniority number because now I can look back and see what it would have yielded had I hung onto it.

We are married to our seniority in this business, for better or for worse. You can divorce, but just like in actual marriages, it will likely cost you an absurd amount of money and time with your kids.

Sure, you can leave. But it’s a gamble. You are rolling the dice that there won’t be a recession, a pandemic, a merger, a bankruptcy, a terrorist attack, an AD that grounds a fleet… anything that could result in a lengthy furlough.

My vote, and I wish someone had given me this advice 15 years ago, would be to hang onto that seniority number and hope for the best, You’ll find out how you did when you turn 65… er 67… er…70?

it’s 3yrs to upgrade (jfk) and another 18mo-2yr on reserve at AA. UA is a much shorter upgrade, much longer reserve. There are thousands bypassing right now. Just wait until they jump over. I’m not saying it’s not a good deal for the right person. I just prioritized immediate QOL rather than run the risk of siting eternal reserve just so people would call me Captain.