Kdog18

Sorry for the rudder steer.

But as a Boglehead I try to keep my investment costs as low as possible. Our 401k is one of the best in the world wrt to this (if not the best). You can own the world for pennies. We have access to DFA funds, institutional investor funds and all Schwab's ETF for free. Schwab's ETFs are the cheapest ETFs in the world and they do not charge any transaction fees. Our 401k account is in the 1.5 - 2 billion $ range, consequently with this scale, our 401k gets certain breaks on already low expense ratios.

We have a PCRA option (Personal Choice Retirement Account). You can put 95% of you 401k into this account and buy anything save LUV stock and certain leveraged products (I think, I don't do this).

...

1Seat 1Engine

By reverse order of most jr FO as of today:

Dallas (by far the most senior)
Orlando
Houston
Midway
Baltimore
Las Vegas (not much difference between the last three)
Phoenix
Oakland

Phx is very senior at the top. Very junior at the bottom.

walkerpiercejen

Kdog....thanks again for the info. amazing productivity and flexibility.

is the lance captain / CQFO program still alive and well or is it a grandfathered program with limited participants going forward ?

and is it correct your charters go senior and are built into some sort of blank lines or are they put out into open bidding and just go senior due to a who gets there first ?

Kdog18

Lances/cqfo is limited to 3.2% of lines. So say a base has 300 lines, you'll have 10 lances in that base. Think i got that right. Many believe the lance program's days r limited. Once the co made the lance cuts, ca vja spiked. This past summer i flew with guys on 4-day vja trips. No guano!
Charters usually go into open time. Seniority reigns. They pay well, but are often red eyes (as our planes are fully utilized throughout the day). They usually go senior to guys living in base (the last part is just a guess, but if u commuting for some of them would be a little painful imo).

We have (or r starting soon) a 1st come/bid winner. Also we will have an ot system that allows u 2 bid on trips that close throughout the day.

You guys r coming here after we finished the rnp training, full up automation, gone r the days of company procedures, ndb approach requirements, ....

Im not much of a koolie, kindof make my own decisions on what i observe. If i would have been told this 5 years ago, i would have said to put the crake pipe down, but there was an article in the Seattle paper regarding a "unnamed domestic only" carrier that put in an intent to buy 40 787s. Not sure what domestic only carrier has the coin / influence with Boeing, but it's my "just a line pilot opinion" that 787s are in our future.

As gk says, you (as a company) change or you go away. Also hk's primary responsibilty has been future aircraft decisions.

Question for you guys, what kind of productivity numbers are you guys leaving behind? Days off / block per month?

Waldo11

I've been sitting in SYD for 4 days now. While nice at first I'd rather be sitting at home or working. Typically work 17-19 days a month so the reverse of that will be very nice....

Block normally around 50 hrs or less per month is what I hear...

paxhauler85

Don't think its exactly the same, but its as close as I could find.

SayAgain

Can someone give me an idea of a 3 or 4 day am line. What time do you duty in generally (closer to 4 am or 7 am or both)? How long is the day and how many legs do you fly on average? How long do you get on overnights? Are the hotels decent?

luv2fly2

Out of all the airlines I have worked at...SWA is by far the best. Treated very well, but I have been on reserve for three years (partly because of the base I chose). Not all, but most of that time has been spent working on the weekends and holidays... I have not been able to see one of my children's games...... So, please do not expect to be able to coach or even see the kidos games if you are new to SWA... Of course this all depends on how quick we grow... Line Holders get 17 to 19 days off a month. Reserve gets 16 days off a month but this can be reduced by carry ins from the previous month. It is easier for a line holder to move trips around to meet your needs, but this can depend on what is available in open time. Its not as easy for reserve.

chase

Avg duty day is 8.5 hrs
Avg flt time per duty day, just over 6 hrs flt time
Avg legs per day; 3 legs
Avg length per leg; 2 hrs
Avg turn time is 30 minutes

Avg pairing is 3 days in length
One scheduled aircraft swap per 3 day
Those swaps avg just about 1 hrs

Hope that helps.

Luv2fly,

I hope times are a changing also so you can enjoy your family on the weekend more. thanks for coming to SWA regardless. I hope you feel in retrospect it was a good move for you.

luv2fly2

Chase,

I am glad I came to SWA..I love it here, but bottom reserve has been my reality....