Zard

update your current employer the day you start indoc. You’ll have three interviews in a week.

Mozam

What he said. The big 3 love to poach from SWA. You have have 3 interviews, and most likely job offers . Good luck, I would not stay here . This place is getting worse by the day .

Roper92

Folded? I can see being underwhelmed, but I’m not sure I’d say folded. What is this historic opportunity you speak of?

flyguy81

Once in a lifetime opportunity. I’ve been flying 121 for 18 years and I’ve never seen regionals offering CA pay and 6 figure bonuses just to work there with guaranteed interviews/flows. Never seen every major airline trying to hire 2000+/yr with upgrades measured in weeks and months vs years and decades.

We’re finally to a point where we can demand changes in our favor in every aspect of the contract and mgt has to agree because if they don’t….the other airlines will and people will leave.

Mozam

Everyone needs to reread and understand this.

RJSAviator76

The fact that some people don't seem to understand this is scary in and of itself.

Lewbronski

It is scary. And, from all indications, we're about to fritter away our opportunity here at SWA to capitalize upon the "once in a lifetime opportunity." If the latest NC Update that just came out yesterday doesn't scare you, then you aren't familiar with how SWAPA works.

Remember, our current contract was the TA-2 that was voted in by 84% of the membership in 2016 and sold by SWAPA as a win. They said they believed it was the best they could do after spending 2,068 days in mediation, never announcing a SAV, and never providing more than the barest, most token RLA education to the membership.

What's the thing that our membership points to as the highlight of our current contract that resulted from TA-2? It got us a still-industry-lagging B-fund. A B-fund that most of the rest of the industry had for years before SWAPA managed to achieve it. Even AirTran had a B-fund for more than a decade before SWAPA got one for its pilot group. And that, right there, was the big win: achieving an industry-lagging retirement plan that after 30 years nets a SWA pilot $1M less than their peers (now close to $2M less than DL).

Oh, and we also got some reserve rule improvements. Aside from that, the major justification for the 84% voting yes was the meaningless banality, "It was much better than what 'SWAPA 1.0' would have gotten us." An absurdity like that doesn't get anyone materially anywhere close to industry-leading disability insurance, work rules, career compensation, retirement, parking, uniforms, or benefits.

We have the chance RIGHT NOW to seize this once in a lifetime opportunity. But all the indications are, from the NC update yesterday to the messaging traffic on other forums and the recent tenor of the SWAPA reps, that we are on the precipice of blowing this one-shot opportunity. The second SWAPA agrees to an AIP, the sell job will begin in earnest (they will deny it's a sell job) and members will be coming out of the woodwork like termites from a rotted log to provide cover and justification for a YES! vote. If you haven't been around here long, you might bristle at the idea of that. But that's the way things go around here. It's also the way things went at both Alaska and Delta this cycle. It's almost like a law of nature.

When the AIP comes, unless it's obviously and appallingly bad on its face like UA's Tumi TA last year, it will pass overwhelmingly with our membership. The mental gymnastics to justify the YES! vote will be gold medal worthy. When the AIP comes, it will be too late to salvage the once in a lifetime opportunity. We will collectively regret blowing our shot at this in about 18 months.

You better contact your reps now if you want something better than what is clearly brewing because we are very close to approaching the event horizon in this process.

Roper92

That gives regional pilots tremendous leverage. It gives corporate/charter pilots great leverage. It gives ULCC pilots a lot of leverage. It even gives sw leverage. But how does that give an airline, that just hired and trained over 3,000 pilots post-Covid with no issues, leverage? Honest question. I don’t think very many, if any, voted yes out of fear from the mediator.

Looking at your attrition, it doesn’t sound like you have as much leverage as you think you do. Best of luck. I hope you guys knock it out of the park, but then again a lot of posters make it sound like they already are with all the OT they fly.

Lewbronski

I agree that, right now, we don't have as much leverage as most SWA pilots think we do via a possible pilot shortage.

We do have far more potential leverage available to us in the form of posing the credible threat of a legal strike than most pilots at SWA or at SWAPA seem to be able to get their heads wrapped around. It is far more powerful leverage than whatever pilot shortage might exist at the moment. And even if a true pilot shortage does develop at SWA, the credible threat of a legal strike does not, at all, diminish the leverage that a pilot shortage might provide us. It not an either, or thing. It's a both, and thing.

Dream

so would you say there were about 70 applicants between the morning and afternoon group?