Sure, ok, sell yourself on a bad choice. I just feel
bad for the pilots who read this nonsense and make career-long decisions based on it.

ah. Soft ridicule. Such a good argument. You sound like the prima donna military guys who waltz off active duty to airline of their choice and are so put out by having a real job.

If I had to live in or near one of our bases I’d find a new job.

We all have reasons for why we live where we live and why we do/don’t commute. One man’s “great QOL” is another man’s misery.

I'm glad to see this thread because I am in a similar boat.

OP, If I was you I would go to United. Until now I have always lived in base. As a new hire at Delta, I've been having to commute. Its only been a couple months, but I already hate it. It feels like hell compared to what I'm used to, which is home in 40 minutes after stepping off the plane. According to the APC numbers, between now and 2040, Delta will have 6,900 retirements while United will have 8900 retirements. You'll be fine at United when it comes to seniority.

Now as for my predicament.
I originally wanted United but Delta came through for me first. I was already in training at Delta when United invited me to an interview, and they gave me a class date which is coming up. I live in NYC so commuting isn't an issue for me either way. I have 2 major questions:

1. Friends at United are telling me that United wants 28,000 pilots on property by 2030??? That sounds ridiculous and kind of impossible but is it true that that is what they are saying? Is there a solid basis for that or is it just company propaganda? I'm aware I would have better seniority at United long term, but even if that is half true that would be a game changer.
2. My other "pro" in the case for United, is that my impression is that they are relatively more progressive/less resistant to change. Is this true? I am basing this based on word of mouth, their bolder DEI policies, their allowing more individual expression in their flight attendant uniform policies and a history of not being afraid to be the first airline to change/take action. (while Delta always goes for more of a "wait and see what everyone else does" approach. Does my impression have some truth to it, or am I off base?
This one is important to me because... for various reasons I don't exactly fit the traditional old school cookie cutter pilot mold. Pilots are a very homogenous bunch, and some of them can be very "gatekeepy" about it and have some rather inflexible ideas about what it means to be a professional pilot. It is extremely important to me to work someplace long term where I will run into the least resistance and most acceptance. I'm good at what I do, I have a good attitude, but I've only been at Delta a few months and I've already run into a few uncomfortable situations with other pilots. Is it likely to be better for my at United in this regard?

Thank you all!!

I never heard of 28,000 pilots. There was talk about 18,000 pilots for the last 7-8 years. It looks like we may get there by 2026 or so.

DAL strikes me as more conservative for sure. Not sure that UAL is a liberal heaven of self expression though.

one thing is for sure though - DAL is the best managed and most profitable major. I doubt that UAL will ever match them.

28000? Sounds pretty far fetched. UAL is about 4500 into hiring the 10000 they wanted to by the end of the decade.

UAL as a company is more progressive than DAL. Like most airlines, the pilot group isn’t as progressive as the company (but gets more progressive as younger people are hired and older pilots medical out/retire) but there’s a lot of diversity in UALs pilot group. UAL is probably more diverse than any other US airline (Hawaiian has the highest% of female pilots but UAL has the most # wise apparently) and second to JetBlue in progressiveness as corporate culture.

20,000 is what I was told.

HAH! That's actually the number that I originally typed, but then I went back to my United friends text and saw 28,000. 18,000 is still incredible though. It seems too good to be true? Every airline is saying they all are planning on "growth", but they cant all grow significantly at the same time. I know they want are growing the fleet, but where is the growth in routes and passengers going to come from?

Also, interesting to hear that my outside impression of the general culture is fairly correct! Thanks again!

United will have 1100 mainline fleet by 2028
907 today with 16000 pilots

so 200 more aircraft will be equivalent to about 1900 pilots since the WB aircraft will be a little higher than today and around 225 787s, 777s 767s by 2028

the rest are BS I think

how many planes parked by 2028?