Nimbus2000

CJO’s from both, living around the LAX area.
Opinions please

dingdong

If you like referring to your fellow pilots by their call sign, go with Delta.

worstpilotever

I say work for both. you should be able work your schedule that will half the month with one and half the month with the other.

GoCats67

I don't know the relative seniority or size of LAX for Delta, but it is very junior for UA. In virtually every new hire class there are LAX assignments available, so depending on your age you will get LAX initially or get something up in SFO. If you are really young (and therefore the junior guy/gal) you stand a very good chance of getting 777 FO in SFO, that has been the junior assignment in the last few classes. At UA you can always bid up in pay, but you can't bid down or to a differnt airframe in the same pay category when you have a freeze. So, if you get a 777 as a new hire, you can lateral to any other 777 base when your seniority holds it, but you can't bid to the 787, 756, 737, or A320 FO spots for 2 years. So, getting the 777 in SFO would be a problem in that we don't have a 777 base in LAX only a 787 one, so you would not be able to lateral down to LAX.

Staffing/size in LAX right now according to the current vacancy bid staffing calls for:
LAX
A320 48 Cap - 51 FO
B737 285 Cap - 323 FO
B756 96 Cap - 89 FO
B787 60 Cap - 130 FO

In the most recent Crew update they are forcasting a growth of 18 LAX 787 Captains, and 84 Lax 737 Captains by the summer of 2023. That obviously translates into a bunch of FO growth and a huge amount of movement at the bottom of the seniority list as everyone is moving up the ladder and their previous spot has to be backfilled as well.

At UA you have to be off probation to bid on a Captain seat, so for most pilots that means a year on the property. On the vacancy bid that is open right now there are unfilled positions on 737 Cap and A320 Cap in LAX (AGAIN!). . On the last vacancy bid that was awarded at the beginning of Oct there were 60 unfilled Captain slots on the 737 and 320 combined in LAX and the junior 756 Captain award went to somebody hired in July of 21. So, if you did get the 777 as a new hire you could bid up to Captain after that first year. Not recommending that, but at least there is that out if the commute is not going well.

So, we the caveat about potentially getting SFO 777 FO as an initial assignment and having to commute up to SFO, I would describe LAX as a great place to be as a UA pilot!

horrido27

post of the day~

Motch

BobbyLeeSwagger

UA can't be beat for movement potential in LAX. Seriously. As long as you can get one of the NB fleets in initial you'll have a very easy ride up the list.

Spesiellsporing

Double breasted or purple with silver wings for your uniform of choice? Widebody flying or predominately narrow?

CLazarus

The OP asked the same question over in the DAL forum... and the thread is already up to four pages! Mostly snarling back and forth about CA lifestyle and taxes, but overall very amusing.

Can't really go wrong with either option. UAL has recently cut LAX RJ flying and replaced it with 737 flying (the LAX 737 base is junior and now significantly larger than SFO 737). The 320, 756, and 787 bases are not very big though. Just announced a 2nd daily LHR 787 trip, if it works out I'd expect some more intl to be added. But until a T-9 is built sometime in the next 5-10 years (we hope), UA can't really grow much more at LAX. Including Express, we've got almost exactly 100 departures scheduled today, DAL has about 135.

Brickfire

Last I checked delta was further along their predicted hiring wave than UAL

Nimbus2000

Thank you everyone for your input. The metrics I’m using to decide partially include opinions from this forum.

For those of you who’s took the time to answer with helpful information about either UA or DL depending on where you work, thank you very much for your input. It’s nice to have some inside info.

For those of you who answered with snarky comments about how California is too expensive to live and about Tax issues. Thank you also for providing an inside look at how working next to you will be like.

Very interesting to see the difference to the exact same post on both airlines forum with one CLEAR winner for the title of most disgruntled bunch.
Thanks again