Half wing

Whether he turned down a class date or made up having a class date, he won’t be working here. Win for us! What a liability to his future employer.

FettyWap

The investment banker is a friend. I got the job offer in January. I cast a wide net and applied a lot of places. Got the class offer last week and I emailed them back to decline the offer.

I know it may sound crazy, but I did indeed decide that UAL wasn’t the best option for me. A lot of that was based on a friend from United’s advice. He’s a Denver FO. Been there almost 20 years. He left SWA for United in 99. Says it cost him millions. But he got to go back on active duty and get his pension. He said we will both be Denver FOs, but I will be making more than him in 3 years and probably upgrade before him. I showed him this thread yesterday. He said you guys must be new and naive.

You guys are taking this way too personally. I imagine you are getting bent out of shape because I’m hitting a nerve. But it’s all good. Maybe we can revisit this in 23 years and see who was right.

MasterOfPuppets

Are you done grinding your ax?

busdriver12

For the OP...is it really that impossible to see yourself moving to a location an hour or two from any of United's bases at some point in your life? You couldn't possibly consider Denver, LAX or SFO (I don't know how senior those are and how long they would take). There are some incredible places to live not too far from those cities. The reality is, you never know if SW would close down MCO, even though it seems impossible.

I've commuted for almost 20 years (but at FedEx, where it's easy), and haven't looked back. However, unless I really disliked working at United, I would find a way to move to base and forego the hassle of interviewing, changing companies, being on probation, etc. I'm all for changing one's situation if you are unhappy, however, why not just figure out a way to change where you live as opposed to go through the hiring drill again?

CALFO

I can understand if you have some concerns aboutUnited, but I can’t understand why you wouldn’t take the class date unless your dream job was already lined up. Why not come the United and check it out. I would think you would have a much easier time getting on with Swa or fedex or whomever if you were already employed at a major. They love that ****. Plus the added benefit of a 737 type and hours for swa. Oh well, guess that ship has sailed. 🚢

Boeing Aviator

What’s that old saying about investing, something along the lines of past performance doesn’t guarantee future results?

There is a lot of experience on this forum. Couldn’t hurt to listen and show some humility.

In the mid 80’s I knew a lot of pilots that choose to go to TWA, Pan Am, Eastern (before the strike), Midway, Braniff and others. Based on history and present day and future projections at the time, some of those companies looked like very good career moves.

At CAL, I flew with Captains who left for US Air in the early 90’s as it was a no brainer, based on their projected retirement alone. To only be furloughed a few years later from US Air and retiring as FO’s with terminated pensions as opposed to a a 757 CA or better at CAL after a significant and quite remarkable turn around. Some would say CAL should have gone out business and a turn around was highly unlikely and they’d be correct.

In my class at CAL in 87 we lost more then half our classmates within the first few years to other airlines. In hindsight some proved to be good moves, some ok and many not so good. One of my classmates went to United three years later (a no brainer at the time and many of us were very envious) and I ended up senior to him in the merger by over 500 numbers.

My point, 30 years in this industry is an eternity and a lot can happen.

ShyGuy

No reason to be crapping on United pilots in their own thread.

Learflyer

Sounds like there is some naivety and “lost decade” deniers in this thread. I wouldn’t be so comfy anywhere.

oldmako

The airlines now have pricing power, load factors and profits that would have seemed impossible 20 years ago. UA/CAL, DAL/NWA, and AMR/USAir now control (and monopolize) a ton of seats.

Times change.

Learflyer

We all speculated about stuff right up until about 9/10/2001 as well. There were multiple threads on APC like this one asking should I go here, should I go here. Then the music stopped.