Did anyone else read “retired AF” the way I did? Lol

I must have subconsciously meant it that way too!

Thanks to all for the great information. You've been a great help.

I did. 10 more years and I’ll be retired AF too……. Then I go down to the dispensary and get stoned AF……….

Hey guys just like to follow up. Retired Air Force here and Fort Worth, TX resident. Going to be interviewing with Southwest and United in the near future. Widebody flying does interest me. How difficult and/or common would that commute be from DFW to Houston (and would things like global reserve change the calculus from the normal ‘commuting sucks’ decision)? I like the DFW area a lot more than Houston so I think I’d like to stay, but who knows how I’d feel in 10 years. I think I might be interested in playing the lazy legacy reserve game but admit totally ignorance on how any of this actually works. Thanks.

I know it doesn’t answer your question, but if I lived in DFW, I’d certainly be focusing on AA. Living in domicile generally trumps the differences between the carriers.

With United, commuting to reserve would still suck, since you have to be on station for short calls and field standbys, but there is near hourly service between DFW and IAH with AA and UAL flights, so you wouldn’t have to spend long calls there.

For sure, AA just hasn't expressed interest for some reason yet so I'm trying to weigh my current options.

The Phoenix guys read it the other way...

Good choices to have.

But AA is a bit of a mess right now. Management has chosen to go to war with it's employees. Crew desk violates the contract regularly. They are having a big problem attracting people to even come to interviews let alone show up for class. Their contract and pay is not good.

Does UAL have better LTD than SWA?

SWA has probably the worst LTD in the industry so without even checking, yes.