Funny, during Covid lots of UA widebody pilots discovered they loved flying cargo. I think UPS have the highest career earnings of any airline pilots in the world, and United has hired 8,174 of our approximately 17,000 pilots in the last six years. That said United is growing and has never been better managed.

https://www.fapa.aero/pilot-hiring-history

 

Brown may make the most money but the pay rates are that high for a reason. I for one would not like to fly all night long for a 25-30 year career. Not worth the money imo.

 

I've been flying all night for 33 years for three different 121 carriers (24 and change at Brown). Somewhere around 29.5 to 30 years, you get used to it ;-)

 

No brainer. Stay at brown. You’ll barely make widebody capt at United and it will be the plug for your whole time. At this point, brown offers a much better work: pay:time off ratio. Unless you live in a United base. Then it may be worth it.

 

Where are/do you want to be based? You have good reasons to make the jump. You might be older and with different circumstances than the op, but you've still got nearly 30 years left. The grass isn't always greener, but there are huge differences between freight and pax flying that a lot of us on this side forget. Brown/purple are great. Sometimes I still regret not going with purple when I was getting off active duty about a decade ago, but in middle age, one thing I know about myself is that I'm a candyass, and 2am-5am hub turns every day and commuting to/living in MEM isn't for me. If this is a career that is going to span decades for you, and if you know that the type of flying you're doing isn't for you, come on over. Just try to do it with your eyes open and with realistic expectations.

 

go read thru the fdx posts. looks pretty miserable with bottom of the industry contract and work rules. management has publicly stated they want to be laser focused on being asset light going forward using huge scope holes and are playing hardball with a now 3 year past amendable contract.
your family will certainly enjoy the significant non rev benefits with 121 as well.

 

Do NOT change jobs for the “non rev benefits”. Maybe they will be useful when I retire, but going anywhere with kids/school schedule is impossible.

 

If you look a teenie tiny bit closer, you'll see it's the same 12 guys in a circular firing squard on that forum. Maybe not the best source.

 

copy, however, I stated facts, not message board opinions (aside from non-rev benefits which everyone sees differently).

 

Anyone remember FedEx 4-8 years ago? Everyone under the sun was swearing by Fedex - upgrade on 757 almost immediately, Fly widebodies around the world and not deal with those pesky cabin drama queens, make fantastic money…. FedEx baby!!

Fast forward a few years….

Think this can’t happen at United? Delta? UPS?

One thing we can all count on - we are all one bad management team away from really, REALLY hard times. I don’t care what they tell you with regards to how many WB’s or pilots they wanna have by 2030 or whatever…. Heavy dose of skepticism is warranted.

My advice is simple… get hired, move to a domicile if at all possible unless living in one already and settle the fk down. Grass is always greener elsewhere.

Given our seniority system, jumping around chasing that WB or that upgrade inevitably bites people in the a$$. You may get lucky…. or you may get bitten.