the decision to switch majors of course is a hard if/when the opportunity comes up. However, if your "dream airline" has a domicile you want to live at for the rest of your career then it would be a pretty easy decision to switch IMO. Any opportunity not to commute definitely should be high on a list of pro/con decisions.

 

Your dad should be able to tell you that there's no way to tell who will be the right choice.

To dog hump Airhoss's point, the job offer in hand is worth infinitely more than the one you're hoping for. For Gods sake take it!

 

Take the offer. Better to be at Delta or American waiting on United to call. Eventually you might be happy enough to stay.

 

Take the offer you got. I long wanted only AA cause from earliest days cause of fam connection. Applied in August '01. They cashed the $100 app fee check on 9/12/01. Never looked back and have zero regrets.

 

Hey Gullwing,

What are you, nuts? Take the job offer! What on earth would make you not take it? Awaiting a call from United? Perhaps you think that after 11 YEARS of trying to get on there, that they will finally take pity on you and invite you in for an interview. Even if they did, you might not make it past their process. Frankly, it doesn't appear that they're interested in you. Don't feel sorry for yourself. It's not you! It's the system. Take the offer! Do well at your new airline. Put United out of your mind... then, if they call, you can come back here and ask people you don't know, what they think you should do. I mean really, unless you're independently wealthy, and don't need to work to eat, you might just chill out until you get that call from United. Common sense would tell you that a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush. Best of luck with whatever you choose, but choose wisely.

 

Why did you even apply and interview elsewhere if you weren't going to take the job?
Everyone here is telling you to take the job, and I agree... but if you don't want it, don't take it, you shouldn't even have interviewed. Some of us are trying our a$$es off for calls. I appreciate you are humbled, but you clearly don't want it.

 

A few of caveats to that:

1) If your dream domicile has over a million people and your future airline has 25% or greater market share, consider making the move. If not, remember Cleveland, Dallas (Delta), Memphis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Seattle, etc. were all crew bases majors either shut down or are currently starving out.

2) If you're at Alaska, American, Delta, or Southwest I'd think really hard before leaving for UAL once you're off first year pay.

3) I don't know when your dad retired, but UAL pilots in particular should understand you're just an employee/necessary expense and nothing more. Flying airliners isn't a higher calling and there's no loyalty. If necessary, they will put you on the street or declare bankruptcy. Make it a business decision on your end, because whomever you go to work for certainly understands that it is for them.

4) I've seen it work both ways. I've saw a pilot leave Alaska for American in '93 to be instantly furloughed for three years. I saw pilots leave US Air in '99 and TWA in 2000 for American, which both worked out. I guess the lesson there is if your carrier is financially stable, stay, if not, go.

 

When you say "major airline" is that another legacy airline or a LCC? Spirit, JetBlue, Virgin America, and some large regionals are major airlines but offer different careers vs the legacies. Depending on the airline it might change the advice being given. I understand the need to be vague due to privacy issues but maybe just list airlines similar to the one that hired you.

Getting past the hiring board with multiple failures at a legacy isn't easy and is far from guaranteed. Failures happen but this is a competitive environment. The LCC's tend to be more forgiving than the big 3, big cargo, or Southwest/Alaska. I have a feeling that while you are right in the thick of what they have hired (TT wise) this past year the failures are keeping them from calling. If you have a job offer from another legacy in hand you just won the lottery.

 

Good god take the offer!!!!! You're emotionally attached to an airline you don't even work for and that's not good.

 

And no airline from 30 years ago even exists today really. Any airline our father flew for regardless of the name is not the airline flying today culturally, work rules, pay, pensions all different.