Leave Airtran for United??

[curious_george]

late 30's.
F.O. with 18 months in.
Discuss:

 

[slaquer5]

Stay you will be at SWA in a year

 

[curtis46]

In that case i would take my chance with united.

 

[DougsRule]

I would leave UAL to go to AAI. Stay were you are... unless you commute from ORD...

 

[RadioClash]

I have a friend here that is trying to do the same thing. They are about a year to 1.5 years away from upgrade. I can't understand it. Nothing against United at all. Just way too many variables out there to go over there.

 

[bladeusa]

i know of 2 ppl that recently left AT for UAL.
one 737 fo had been here about 16 months and one 717 fo who had been here about 6 months. both had ties to the west.
everything in this industry is a gamble, but with risk comes reward.
giving up 18 months to be on the bottom of ual is very risky though.. But who knows.. its all speculation on what could or couldnt happen to either company.

 

[400ADude]

Neither. I'd rather work at Dominos than either of these two.

 

[pilotyip]

You won't know for five years

There a lot of SWA pilots who left SWA for DAL/UAL/NWA/ etc, in 2001. We had a pilot left USA Jet for NWA in August of 2001, cost him almost 400K, giving up DC-9 Captain for furlough two monhts after being hired by SWA. You will know in 5 years. Long list of friends did things like left Fedex for Braniff in 1978, left North Central for Eastern in 1977, left General Motors Corporate pilot job for Braniff in 1978, left DAL for PamAm in 1968.

 

[johnsonrod]

Leave Air Tran if you want to fly for CAL because it is very likely that UAL and CAL will become one if the Delta/NWA merger happens. If UAL were growing and it actually had a strategy, I'd probably make the move to UAL just to get the option to fly multiple fleets and to fly internationally. Now that UAL is not very secure and it has zero growth, I would be a bit more cautious. I don't know how a merger would impact newbies - that's the big question. Could newbies be furloughed initially (and bumped down to Skywest or CHQ?)? You never know. It could work out well in the long term if newbies are afforded some protection. It could be a good long-term play with some short-term anxieties.

Upgrade times would be very long at a UAL/CAL combo I would assume - and that is something to consider.... If you want to be PIC sooner than later, stay at Air Tran. I also agree that Air Tran could be a SWA target if the industry starts to consolidate.

 

[contrail67]

I would at least go to the interview and get the experience and check United out...interview them too...see if it is what you want.