Originally Posted by rickair7777

As 737 pilot I'm a little biased. Towards UA. Gotta go the drugstore now, ran out of advil for my back.

Originally Posted by 11atsomto

Observations:
Many a United pilots hired in the last 2 years came from WN. Some never look back, some occasionally mention "well back at Southwest we di _____" the use of the We pronoun indicates a mild level of regret...I think that will go away when they are on the Sydney overnights.
To my knowledge ZERO pilots hired at SWA in the last two years came from United.

Originally Posted by 11atsomto

I didn't say WN was an ULCC. I was just comparing my culture experience at B6 (which could be argued isn't really one either) and recognizing that there is a noticable Cockpit culture change from there to a legacy.
All in response to A few posts up...someone said they left UAL for WN...because they didn't like the people they flew with.

For the record I like some people I fly with more than others, but can't say I dislike anyone so far. That notwothstanding as mentioned above it is a very noticable difference in cockpit culture and custom. I'd imagine Southwest similar dynamic, No?

Originally Posted by flyguy81

Possibly....in nearly 9 years there's only 1 person I'll never fly with again at WN....and he was a MIL guy from Air Tran. Our HR does a good job at hiring and everyone is pretty easy going. I'm sure it's mostly that way everywhere though....

Originally Posted by Ptwob401

I'm in a pickle. United's hiring timeline lagged Southwest by a few months in my case, and I ended up starting Southwest training about a week after interviewing with United. I got the call on my first day of onboarding with SWA. I don't anticipate a class start for a few months, so I'll likely be in or through IOE with Southwest by then.

Life situation and personal priorities:
I live in Denver and will for the forseeable future. I'm only about 35-40 min from the airport and I plan on living there for a long time. More than anything else (wide body, money, etc), I value time off and flexibility. Flexibility seems to be SWA's scheduling bread and butter, but I'm wondering how drastically different it is from the other Majors, and whether that's worth flying one airplane for life.

Looking for some guidance from folks who may have experience at SWA but switched (or know anyone who has). Or folks that are UAL Denver based and have some insight on life in that domicile regarding schedules. I'll also post this in the SWA chat to get the other side of the story.

My biggest concern is switching and regretting it. The new SWA contract is pretty solid and I dig the vibes at the training center at least. Could be falling for the propaganda but I haven't met anyone that hates their life, ha.

Originally Posted by Milksheikh

This is a no brainer. Go to ual asap. You’ll make a ton more over a career and will work less doing it. Considering southwest has 0 widebody flying and about 6-7 years longer to upgrade its ual all the way.

Originally Posted by Milksheikh

This is a no brainer. Go to ual asap. You’ll make a ton more over a career and will work less doing it. Considering southwest has 0 widebody flying and about 6-7 years longer to upgrade its ual all the way.

Originally Posted by jrydel

The whole “quick upgrade” at UA is a bit overblown too in my opinion. On 3rd year FO pay, if I worked 18 days a month I could probably credit 105-110. Compared to a reserve CA at UA, I could probably come within 2-3k of what they earn.

Originally Posted by jrydel

I think with the new contract the whole “earn millions less” at Southwest isn’t really true. I ran the numbers for myself based on min credit. 36 year career. Upgrade at WN in 6 years. Upgrade to NB CA at UA year 2, and WB CA the last 10 years of my career (optimistically). Total career earnings were within a couple hundred thousand.

The whole “quick upgrade” at UA is a bit overblown too in my opinion. On 3rd year FO pay, if I worked 18 days a month I could probably credit 105-110. Compared to a reserve CA at UA, I could probably come within 2-3k of what they earn.