That depends on a lot of factors.....please explain.....

Our Short call and field standby system leaves alot to be desired. In other words, it's difficult to predict when you will be assigned either. Which means a commute might be necessary to sit reserve. For instance, I had to commute to EWR to sit in a hotel because of the 13 hour rule. Just due to my travel options. You also run the chance of being assigned a 2.5 hour shortcall or field standby on any given day without being able to predict when you will be assigned. There is gamesmanship to aggressively picking those up, but the bottom line is commuting to sit and do nothing sucks. If they had a longer long call, you could comfortably sit from home and not waste time in a hotel or crash pad with the waiting game. If they had a seniority based shortfall or fsb system. We might be able to live a better qol due to personal scheduling. Take note this isn't a complaint at all and we have a great company. There is room for improvement, however. Reserve is mostly a right of passage for us bottom feeders with low seniority.

Big differences I wasn’t aware of when making the same choice:

1) AA year 2 pay starts later than UA. UA gets year 2 pay a year after INDOC start date.

2) As a commuter at UAL, you have no priority commuting. You could be on your way to work and a more senior pilot (who is non rev on a day off) can bump you. It surprises me that we don’t have better commuter polices such as the ability to book a jump seat or at least a category outside of PS that prioritizes commuters over regular non rev. Hence the reason I am living in base.

Great decision to have either way you slice it. Especially with your location flexibility. Good luck!

A few things to consider: -AA pilots can reserve the jumpseat, making commuting much more predictable. AA currently has 133 group 4 aircraft. That increases to 145 next year, 155 in 2021 and 171 by 2025. 767's are being replaced by 787's and there's a big pay difference between the two. Yes our debt is high, but we are most of the way through replacing the fleet with newer aircraft. United will be doing this too.
LAX is a junior base at AA, should be able to get it out of training. AA has the retirement wave hitting right now and peaks sooner than UA. Group 2 CA and Group 4 FO are both at 5 years right now and will probably drop a little more over the next few years. LAX has some pretty junior Group 2 CAs.
I think United has a better overall contract but it sounds like reserve at AA is better. No airport reserve and no defined call out time (contract says "promptly").
Personally, I would go to whoever has the soonest class date and most likely stay put.

Reserve at UAL is pretty brutal. There is no sitting around and growing a beard while playing video games all day. Aside from that it’s a great place to work and the retirement plan is insane! Good luck OP.

United Airlnes.

171 Group 4 aircraft by 2025?? Where did you get that number?

Those fleet update things they put out every year.
777-67
787-89
330-15

I'm not certain the 787 numbers are correct for 2025. That's what we have on order after the last order that coincided with the A350 cancellation. There may also be some widebodies getting replaced by those 787's but that hasn't been announced.

I've found reserve not too hard, but it kind of depends on your commuter options. I've got close to 10 direct non stop flights between the various carriers I can jumpseat to LAX. Usually I aggressive pickup a trip that starts with a deadhead and deviate straight to whatever trip I am doing from local airport. Then try to line up a trip ending with deadhead to get me home as well, so far I've been able to do it close to 50% of the time.

As for short calls / fsb LAX tends to have far fewer of them due to base size, and they drop as open assignments well in advance so its very easy to see who's going to get what. Planning wise it's not hard to get a 15-24 hour notice from what I've seen on those events.

Those numbers are kind of misleading pal, how about sticking with what widebodies you currently have on the property. Forecast orders are flattering but don’t count until they are physically in place.