Milksheikh

AA has 112 top paying widebodies. Delta has 89. Does bump up to 110 if you include the 767-400 which I believe the new contract banded them with the 330/350? That’s if the numbers off here are current.

The key difference is how long it will take a new hire today to become capt. As the OP stated, if hired today, he may not even crack 1000 at delta. He’ll be number 60ish come retirement at AA.

Milksheikh

This! This right here is the one major downside to delta for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m gone yesterday if they call, but they’ve moved several spots down the totem pole the last couple years due to the WB capt outlook.

Whoopsmybad

No arguing the time to get there, for sure.

We are taking quite a few deliveries over the next few years as well.

And just for arguments sake, they 330 and 767-400 were both pay banded to the 350, neither were already there.

GMK35

If the OP goes to DAL, he could be a NYC WB FO out the gate or a NYC NB CA in a year (currently, of course times can and will change). System seniority, especially in his NYC local case, just doesn’t really matter as much as some here are arguing. If he’s going to stay in NYC, who cares about retirement seniority of 60 @ AA vs 10XX @ DAL - irrelevant in his specific case.

Gone Flying

Everyone talking about how junior NY is…it’s junior at the bottom of several categories but it it’s still gonna take quite a bit of time if you want any seniority as a CA.

example, current mid Seniority 737 CA is projected to be right at 8000. Which is more junior than any other CA in NY.

That would take someone hired today until 2040 to get that senior. 17 years from now.

you may upgrade quickly in NY but you better like being junior. With that said you can do things like bid reserve and maybe get weekends and holidays off that way, but you will be in the bottom half of your category for a long time.

also, just my $.02, but I think the reason CA in general but especially in NY is going SO junior right now is because right now there are plenty of opportunities for FOs to make a killing due to our staffing. If staffing stabilizes I think we will see lots of senior FOs bidding the left seat.

it sounds like the OP is towards the front of AAs hiring wave, if he came here he would very much be on the back side of ours.

Hillbilly

I recently heard a Managing Director say 16,500 - 17,000 is a possibility. As with most things in this industry, the number was stale .0001 seconds after he said it.