Sliceback

Another hidden gem of long haul flying is 30 hr layovers(legal break). And three man crews. Four man crews is awesome. FO - "commuting to any four man trip is worth it. Same FO commuting cross country. 12 on, 18 off. All in a row. One commute this month. Typically does two.

Dolphinflyer

Take a good look at future retirements.
Are there a bunch of 35-40 year old junior Captains at SWA? If so, enjoy bidding behind them for the next 25-30 years.

At AA, most of the CA narrow body bottom line holders are 55+. Even a large chunk of the flow thrus since AA started hiring are in their late 50's, early 60's.

Cesspool? It's getting better, a lot better. Plenty of things to still fix, but improving.

10 years ago, they would shut down the training center cafeteria and let guys eat out of vending machines on Thanksgiving. Same out on the line. It improved slightly to a turkey sandwich box lunch in ops a few years ago.

Last night I had a great fresh cooked ham/turkey dinner served by a happy staff in a decorated room in ops. Nice gesture, big improvement.

They still need to pay me more though.

Arado 234

Don't hold your breath! TW still has 8 years to go AFAIK. Lots of time for him and his "improvements"!

hindsight2020

It certainly doesn't escape me the fact that retirement numbers are much more attractive over at AA. The young demographic over at SW gives me pause, no doubt about that. That said, if NB upgrades on both companies are still projected at 15+ for mid-seniority domiciles, even after accounting for retirement numbers, then that difference is a moot point for me as someone with no intention of working past 60 (essentially 23 years of airline work left when I separate). Ability to hold TX domicile becomes more important to me however.

I know I can get HOU or DAL within 3 months at SW. That puts me on-domicile or within driving/GA-flying distance to both Reserve and airline jobs. Life is good. Is DFW still projected to be 18 months to hold base on junior equipment (what is the junior equipment?) and years on reserve even after retirements? Trying to figure out which outfit would yield the quickest QOL improvement as a guy with close to 15 years of mil reserve duty left a.k.a. the threat of double commute if I don't line up airline work sensibly.

viper548

You should be able to get DFW in less than a year. In DFW the 320 is junior to the 737. MD80 is going away. LGA and MIA are junior bases for the 737 and 320. PHL 190 is also junior.

Hueypilot

Right now, the time to get into DFW will fluctuate. Now that we have a single seniority list, a lot of the pilots that were stuck on the east coast or out in Phoenix are bidding into AA bases. It might take a year or so for all of that to work itself out. Once that does, I would imagine new hires will be able to bid into DFW within a year, maybe less as retirements pick up.

Sliceback

Upgrade at the junior base is about 7-8 years. With the huge retirements numbers the senior base upgrade, using today's bidding data, will be 1.5 yrs later.

Hueypilot

That's about what I've figured...I've been here for almost 3 years and based on the numbers, I should be able to upgrade in DFW around the 9-10 year mark.

hindsight2020

Thanks fellas. Sweet gouge, much appreciated. DFW doesn't seem as onerous as previously thought.

Hueypilot

DFW looks onerous right now only because there's a long line of PHX and LUS-East pilots trying to get in. Let the initial base swapping ebb and it'll settle down and new hires will likely be able to get into DFW in a reasonable amount of time...but I'd guess that for the next year, all the vacancies in DFW will probably be soaked up by East/West pilots.