I tend to agree with you. If there was no new base in the picture I would feel better about getting back to a CA base with the new hires in the pipeline. I guess we’ll see what happens before my class dates at UAL.

 

I had a similar situation except with 4 yrs seniority and still living in base, coming out of covid. My buddy across town coming from skywest got picked up by United right after covid and was in the left seat of an A320, still in base, a year after being hired. I stuck it out at SWA instead of jumping ship, so when he made CA in the A320 in my base I was still year 5 FO in the guppy. But... a year later as a senior FO, my wife got cancer and we survived with me flying day trips and using FMLA pulls when she needed care at home. Could I have done as well as a new CA at United sitting reserve? I dunno. I've been 6 months away from upgrade for the last 3 years but just banged out on disability. So... SWA has worked out great for me personally, while my "buddy at united" also found a situation that worked out great for him.
Luck of the draw and your personal situation makes all the difference. I "missed" a few opportunities but ended up in a situation that ended up working out quite well through some very difficult times. Make your best guess and buy in 100%, that's my suggestion.

 

well, if you want SFO at United, you can nearly 100% get it on day 1. Vacancy just opened yesterday with 100 FO slots and 70 CA slots (737). Also a few widebody in the vacancy.

If SFO is your goal, it’s hard to beat UAL. Awesome widebody flying and huge narrowbody seniority movement.

you never did say exactly where you live, but you implied SAN.

LAX would be obtainable quickly, too, it looks like.

 

More than hard. Impossible.

 

thank you for sharing. I appreciate it. I can’t even imagine how very hard that time was for your family and I don’t take Southwest disability and flexibility benefits for granted.

I live by LAX. Only hoping for SAN because I think that’s my best chance of getting back to LA. Another thing that lingers in my mind is how small the LAX base is for SWA.

 

Are you saying you have a class date at UAL? UAL is the hot ticket right now, hiring 2500 next year. If I was in your shoes I'd probably jump ship before it's too late.
Especially if you want a California base. Seems like a no brainer.

 

current UA vacancy has 40 LAX FO and 30 LAX CA (737), for what that’s worth.

 

Leave, go to United 100%. Updating my application too.

About the same seniority as you. I live in a base I can’t hold, commuting, and every month I get closer to being displaced to a worse commute. The future here is uncertain and united made like 5x our projected yearly profit in one quarter.

 

I've got to think that once hiring returns to normal at SWA, OAK and LAX will once again go junior on the FO side. There's simply only so many new FOs willing or able to put up with the high cost of living there.

 

Tough to trust that username and 2 posts, but I actually agree with that logic. 2 years of Southwest seniority is worthless right now because we haven't hired for 2 years. Yea, things are going to rapidly change, but United for SFO and LAX are both great places to be. SWA is almost certain to turn the ship around, but it is going to take a while. I personally think Harvard Business School is going to write a case study about how SWA believed its own BS and got ruined by accountants and then turned around by private equity (ironically). It's going to be a long slog, though, and things look a lot better on the west coast at UA.