you make a good point, thank you for the input! I like Houston, but don’t have to live there

 

Plus IAH WB flying is all around not that spectular and also very senior. EWR and SFO are whole different ball game. Stick ton the widget.

 

I’ve heard that for second time now, is IAH not a big intl. gate for UA? I know SFO and EWR are diff ballgames; but second time someone has said IAH WB flying is very limited

 

All of our mid continent bases (DEN, ORD, and IAH) get the shaft when it comes to international flying.

 

Plenty of people at UA live in IAH and commute to SFO for the WB flying out of SFO. Also, IAH is senior on the NBCA side, and current plans for the NB fleet don't have growth in IAH.

If I were in your shoes I'd stay right where you are. You hit the pilot lottery with a job at DL at your age .. settle in and enjoy the ride. 1,500 numbers below you will make a significant difference when (not if) a downturn eventually arrives and either movement stops, downgrades happen, or the F word occurs. (These will all happen at some point in the next 40 years). You've got a great spot ..I would not give it up unless you absolutely positively must live in SFO and don't want to commute. Then, it might make more sense.

 

if you change midway through next year the best you will do is retire around 600. I’m sure you can tell where your seniority will be at delta upon retirement. Next is whatever you are chasing you will most likely never really get ahead. You are currently about 10% off the bottom at Delta. By the time you leave you will be ~15% off the bottom. You will chase number your entire career. By the time you get to United we will have hired another 750-1000 pilots. We will only have about 2000 more pilots of growth if everything goes great with United Next. So we look 5 years down the road at United you will be roughly 75% system wide. At delta you would be coming up on 65%. I hope you see the trend here. DONT leave. Delta is a great airline with a great balance sheet and steady growth and retirements. Grass might look greener but only if you had left delta a year ago and came to United in late 23 would it have actually been greener.

that’s my thoughts from a guy who got hired very young at JetBlue, would have retired number 7 and left to come to United still at a young age (8 ball in my class but at the very early stages of hiring in 13. It worked out for me but you are on the back end of a massive hiring wave at United.

 

Oh I wasn’t aware of that, IAH-SFO commute seems like you’d wanna avoid it, but SFO does look like it has great flying. I’m not really open to living in Cali or Northeast at the moment, I’d prefer Houston or maybe DEN, but right now I’m Georgia settled

 

You already have been dealt a winning hand. Delta has pretty solid management and they will be right there with United in growth if the manufacturers get going. United is great now but a lot of growth right up until a downturn or monkey pox or sars 3.0 will be interesting to see how they handle it. We could park 75/6, older airbus, and old 73ngs very quickly. It’s all fun and games when things are good but hold on to your ass when things are bad. Delta profit sharing vs united over a 30 yr career is probably a couple Ferraris just based on Atl landing fees and less unions.

 

Thank you for the advice, the downturn stuff does sound dark, tho I haven’t been around to see a day like that yet. Isn’t UA profit sharing same as DL now tho, with similar profits?

 

I want to add one more thing. It’s cool to fly to cool places but it only lasts so long. Get senior get more time off and go travel for fun with your family and friends. It’s way way way better than operating to a 30 hour overnight. Then trying to rest so you can fly back. Block your schedule together and get 2 weeks off in a row or be senior FO and get bought off then go travel.