Any insights to any of the future hiring windows? Still pulling from the summer window? Thanks!

Pretty sure the previous window is over. A number of people got TBNTs from the last opening today. Due to a reduction in classes, not many were interviewed.

Next window will likely open end of January.

Retirement "wave"? Lol.

Compared to what?

Compared to UA, DL, AA? Might want to check the retirement numbers at the legacies and then compare it to the retirement numbers at Southwest. Scroll to the bottom to view the retirements each year.

Do you still call Southwest retirements a "wave"?

You sure PBS is a distraction? And if it is, for who? Us or the company?

They couldn't "figure out" vacation bidding because it doesn't give them any kind of advantage to act quickly on it. However, it does provide them an advantage to draw it out. It divides the pilot group going into 2020. Russell McCrady is not dumb.

PBS, on the other hand, creates a win/win for the company. Either they obtain it and save themselves a ton of money on overlap and other scheduling inefficiencies or they use it as leverage causing clue-lacking SWAPA to back away from many of its asks in order to keep PBS off property. Expect company whisperers to start using terms like "good PBS" just like they started talking about "good code share" last time.

And I wouldn't count on this next negotiation being long and difficult. It might end up being that way but, for a variety of reasons, there's a decent chance we'll have a TA about a year from now. That's probably not a good thing for the pilot group. Hope I'm wrong.

The entity we’re negotiating with is a lot sharper than anyone at the company, it’s FordHarrison which does all the labor relations work for almost every airline. They’re masters at what they do, as well as consult the companies on healthcare, etc.

The divide, distract and destroy as necessary to get the negotiations victory.

We need to understand and adapt to this to be successful at representing ourselves.

Southwest Hiring 2020
 

At its peak, AA will retire approx 6.5 percent of its pilots in a single year. Huge movement.
At its peak, SWA will retire approx 4.1 percent of its pilots in a single year. Not AA movement, but not something to ignore, either. The retirement waves at the respective airlines are pretty similar over the years, SWAs just trails by a couple of years and has a younger pilot group, so it is spread out over a longer period.
So yes, I would call it a wave. AA is like a tsunami, SW is like a pretty sweet swell.
Those reading this who get hired towards the back end of that wave at AA/DL/UA are going to be stuck in the right seat for a very long time. Delta has front loaded a lot of hiring with young pilots, so they are already seeing that stunted seniority growth in the future to a degree. While I know that seems far off, go back 10 years on this forum and read some of the posts. Eye opening.

Not entirely accurate..... At least at Delta there are MANY choices you have to make, each with significant opportunity cost. You will be able to hold left seat pretty quick if you pick a smaller category and/or base yourself in NYC or LA for example. It will be awhile to bid 777 captain in ATL, but even now a new hire will have amazing seniority portability around the system depending on the base and the companies equipment decisions.

So if LEFT seat is YOUR goal, you will do much better at a legacy than SWA for quite some time. It may not be your dream assignment though, that is why often WB FO is significantly more senior at some bases than the NB Captain positions.

I had a delta guy on the JS. He just upgraded to the 737 in LAX. 17 yrs on property. He said he could hold right seat 777 LAX and he'd be 2nd from the bottom.
I'm sure he could have upgraded sooner but I didnt get the impression very much sooner.
Either way there's always the grass is greener stories at every airline. I'm glad now people have somewhat of a choice compared to 10 years ago.

there are 3 year captains at Delta. (probably even junior)

the next bid at UPS will likely see 6 year captains, although to be fair, they did not hire from 2008- mid 2014

He was feeding you a line. Nobody has 17 years on property because nobody was hiring in 2002. But 12 years on property gets you about 20-25 from the bottom of LAX777 right seat.