Uuuhu...our uniform goes back to the 1930's thank you very much.
When making a decision about going to a major you need to look at history, and make LONG-TERM decisions.
CAL has never been one of the desirable carriers to work for...they always had bottom-of-the-barrel wages and working conditions. The ONLY reason they are attractive right now is that the other majors have given so much in concessions and they've been one of the few places hiring. While the upgrade progressions are certainly impressive, they won't last forever. Back in 2000, we had 2 year Captains at DAL...things change.
CAL has never once stood up for themselves and led the industry anywhere...I doubt their track record will be much different come time for Section 6 negotiation.
If you like flying for a pilot group with a large scab contingent...go to CAL.
Absent of payrates, our pilot contract is light-years better than CAL and is probably the best legacy contract out there. I'm sure when it comes time, we'll leap frog CAL and be back near the top of the pax. carrier business. Heck, we took a 33% paycut and STILL paid more than CAL. It wasn't until our BK that we fell below.
As for management, CAL has certainly been able to weather the storms over the last few years very well, and will probably continue to do so. I do, however, believe the new management at DAL to be just as capeable and will do great things with our superior network. Our new long-haul domestic product is better than anyone's out their with dual class leather seats, TVs in every seat, new food and drinks, etc. Our long-haul product with the lie-flat seats is constantly evolving. DAL is truly re-investing in the product. CAL still offers the same old average thing they did in the mid 90s. And whats up with that turkey "sub" thats no bigger than my fist?
CAL has only about 12% heavy aircraft while Delta's fleet is 25% heavy aircraft...2.5 times as many heavy airplanes as CAL. DALs pilot group is currently only about 50% larger than CALs.... bottom line there are far more opportunities to fly heavy aircraft at DAL (and thus better pay and working conditions) than CAL. As Delta's focus points more towards long-haul international, this will certainly tilt the scales more in DAL's favor.
For a junior guy, Delta's fleet is more enjoyable to fly. On the 73NG and MD88 fleet, each plane is identically equipped...no need to switch between the 737-3/5/7/8/9.
Have you seen CALs training center vs. DALs? Pretty self-explanatory there.
Delta's PBS system is far superior to CALs (our PBS guy is always hearing from the CAL rep about how they are unhappy with what they have).
I have many friends that went straight from ExpressJet to CAL and most of them say its an anti-climactic experience.. basically ExpressJet with different airplanes. I guess that says a lot for XJT, but not so much for CAL.
We've fallen pretty far from where we were, but DAL is still a first-rate, very organized, very structured company where people are treated as professionals and people generally do a great job.
These are, of course, my opinions but CAL has always been a 2nd tier major and I don't see anything they've done lately that makes me think any different other than they pay more than us....for now.
Wow did a CAL guy f@^k your wife?
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