Delta Atlanta base: holding a line at 20 months, the thunderstorm summers, the Southern passengers, and why the biggest base is the fastest
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#1 Delta Atlanta, and Sally wrote the JFK reserve version and I want to write the Atlanta one, because the base choice at a US carrier is the whole first five years and Atlanta is the base that people do not choose and should.
The base
The largest hub of the largest carrier, by most measures. Thousands of crew. Every fleet type. Every destination Delta serves, domestic and international. A crew room that is a small airport terminal on its own.
Why the biggest is the fastest
Because the seniority curve at a base depends on how many crew are ahead of you relative to how many lines exist, and Atlanta has the most lines. New crew flow in and senior crew retire in numbers that mean the list moves. I held a line at 20 months. At JFK that is a fantasy. At a small base it can be faster still, but the small bases have fewer lines and less variety. Atlanta is the sweet spot: big enough to move, big enough to fly everywhere.
The flying
Everything. Domestic turns, the transcons, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and increasingly the Asia and Africa flying. A line holder at Atlanta can build a month that is all Europe, or all domestic, or a mix, and the bidding software will give it to you in seniority order. I do a Europe trip and a Latin America trip and some domestic every month. That is a line. That is what reserve at JFK is waiting for.
The thunderstorm summers
May to September. Every afternoon. A ground stop at 3pm is not news, it is weather. The four hour delay thread applies to Atlanta more than anywhere in the network, and the crew culture is built around it: the calm, the water runs, the duty time maths, the hotel at 1am in a city you were supposed to have left. It is the tax on the base and it is a real one.
The Southern passengers
Polite, mostly. 'Yes ma'am' and 'thank you' from people who mean it. The Atlanta cabin is calmer than the New York cabin and the crew who move here from the Northeast comment on it within a week. The difficult ones are difficult in a different, quieter way. I prefer it.
Living in Atlanta
Cheap, by airline city standards. A crew member on a first year salary can rent a real apartment alone in a real neighbourhood. The commute to the airport from the south side is short. The city is bigger than people think and greener than people think.
For new hires choosing a base
If you are not from New York or LA and you do not need to be there, Atlanta. The line comes sooner, the flying is everything, the rent is real, and the thunderstorms are the price. Sally will tell you about the price of JFK. It is higher.
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#2 JFK, reserve, year three, and Cassie is right about everything including the price. I chose the city. She chose the line. She has a line. I have the city. Both of us knew.
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#3 New York base, reserve, and the '20 months' number has made me look at the transfer list. Atlanta is not New York. A line is a line. I am thinking about it for the first time.
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#4 United Newark, and our Houston and Denver bases are the same story: the big non coastal hub moves the list. Everyone wants the coast. The coast is reserve for years. The advice is the same at every US carrier and nobody takes it.
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#5 @jetlagjim nobody takes it. I took it by accident because I am from Georgia. Best accident of my career.
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#6 United Houston, and 'the big non coastal hub' is exactly Houston and I held a line in year two and I fly everywhere and I have thunderstorms and humidity and cheap rent. Cassie's post with the city name changed.
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#7 East Coast, and the 'Southern passengers are polite in a way the Northeast cabin is not' is a thing every crew member who has flown both knows and nobody says. Cassie said it. It is true.
