xaarman

How’s life at SWA post contract ratification? Magically, signing ours made a lot of the gripes go away.

The ALPA movement is dead, mostly because their zealousness has turned off the majority they need to attract - as shown. And then you have Captains pressuring new hires for ALPA card drive support, who subsequently turn to APA Pro Standards because they fear a bad Probationary report if they don't agree. Then APA has to defend those Captains when the Chief Pilots find out about it during the Probationary meet ups.

So basically, you’re upset that your hypothetical doctor might not be in-network. And ALPA would somehow prevent this. Are you Jeff Manley?

Half the story. The company, upon notification that restricting out of network offices was against the JCBA, are working to ensure it never goes into effect for 2024.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/THu9vAwwfEC41YmE8?g_st=ic 😋

I used to be involved with the union side of new hires until last year. The number that get hired at a legacy, then leave for another legacy/FedEx/UPS is statistically irrelevant. For anyone who leaves, another legacy pilot takes their place. The primary driver is domicile (go for first hire, then leave for first choice.)

My idiot CA last trip was talking about his $100k retro check on the van to the hotel, in front of the driver, who I'm sure was making about $10/hr with no benefits. My one word answers made him talk more about the calculations, pensionable vs not pensionable, why not pensionable in prior years, but it's ok because net cost is so great. Then tipped a dollar like usual.

They are getting desperate.

Most of the time we take a 15-20 minute delay and still block in three minutes early.

Found the independent contractor

Can’t wait for the shitstorm in 24 months as everyone there takes a 50% pay cut. No one in their right mind should stay there over a spot at the big 6, or even Spirit/Frontier/JBlue.

The instructions should include whether or not they want Part 141 or UPT stage checks listed. When I was filling out applications, DAL was a yes to all. IIRC Southwest was a no, and only wanted failures listed after your PPL. This was in 2017 before their fancy new website and all so it may have changed, but I remember everything being pretty clear in the instructions. UPT were stage checks… Q3s were checkride failures

Not really, everything we’ve heard is were so behind on hiring. Some news articles posted in the last day: At the conference, executives of American Airlines and Delta Air Lines said they saw record daily sales last week. In investor updates, Delta said it expected revenue for the quarter to slightly exceed its previous estimates, while United Airlines said corporate travel was improving faster than expected, reaching the highest level since the pandemic began. American said improvement in revenues would “more than offset” the increase in fuel prices, which have spiked since Russia went to war in Ukraine. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/business/airlines-travel.html Outgoing American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said Tuesday at the same investor conference that the carrier recorded three of its best ticket-selling days of all time last week. https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2022/03/15/southwest-airlines-cuts-65000-spring-flights-with-continued-staffing-shortage/ "We're seeing an increase in demand that is really unprecedented," said Delta president Glen Hauenstein. "I have never seen ... demand turn on so quickly as it has after Omicron." https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/03/15/business/rising-airfares-fuel-prices/index.html

I can’t see any country not try to develop or attain nuclear weapons. It seems that is the only deterrent from being attacked by another nuclear power.

We have a lot of provisions that are not friendly to pilots, and heavily favor management. If you commute, the problems are exemplified... if you do what @Lord Ratner does, the issues are mitigated significantly. Off hand: No double dipping, no reassignment premium pay except for actual time flown outside original sequence block in, Recovery Obligation for a sequence that has a Misconnect, Illegality, or Cancellation that extends to 0159 the day after for domestic, or +30 hours from block in for international, only 150% premium, premium is seniority based (great for those at the top), trips blocked for IOE rather than being bought off (can still be bought off, but less common), significant disagreements with Management on Notification rules, negligible profit sharing, a near incompetent IT team, Loss of License (LTD) monthly pay capped at 60% or $8k, whatever is less, 60 hours of sick time a year, no timeline to settle grievances so there are 100+ of them pending, and the company enjoys "Fly and Grieve" afforded to them by the RLA, etc. All of these are largely Scheduling issues that can be fixed contractually. The other half of AAs problem are pilots who have seen the worst of the industry, and are 1) permanently jaded about life 2) constantly believe they should be made whole and are mad that it hasn't happened yet 3) refuse to learn how to manipulate our contract to their advantage 4) blame everyone else for not fixing their personal pet peeve (x6000 other pilots with their own personal pet peeve.) Despite all the above, I still enjoy working here. If you live in a mega hub, you can make a lot of money by working very little comparatively. If a pilot gets wrapped on the Union forums or the Facebook groups... well, misery loves company... and there's several hundred vocal pilots who won't be happy until you agree with them on how awful everything is. edit: still leaps and bounds better than AD, and I have more free time then I know what to do with. pilots having an entire second business is a real thing here.

GTFO out of Omaha. We probably know each other. But if you have to commute to a regional, anywhere with a junior base of MSP, DEN or ORD. ORD has a ton of capacity because of AA and UAL hubs, Spirit and Frontier, a bunch of regionals, and to a lesser extent SWA to MDW. DEN has UAL and Frontier. Pinpointing the best regional to work for is extremely hard right now. They're all in the midst of doing everything possible to attract pilots. Air Wisconsin was considered one of the best 2 years ago, now they might not last beyond 2023 (hemorrhaging pilots and airlines getting rid of 50 seaters.) Republic was considered one of the worst because of pay, but is now one of the top choices. Haven't heard anything bad about SkyWest. But I can't stress how much being able to drive to work adds to the airline QoL. From sitting RSV at home, to being able to choose start and end times that don't involve coming in a day early and leaving a day late, not dealing with a crash pad or paying for hotels, to weather that cancels everything and you have uncomfortable calls with the Chief Pilot, to short notice Premium (150-300% extra pay) trips, to trip trading flexibility... Living in base is far superior. You are gone less, and make more money. I moved to DCA after getting out, and then to DFW during my mini-furlough. DFW offers permanent princess parking if you have various military medals, I haven't seen an employee parking lot since I moved here. It saves 15-25 minutes on the front and back half of every trip.

Where do you want to live?

Living in domicile trumps all commuting (at pax airlines.) Life is especially good at DFW if you qualify for specific military plates (Air Medal…) and get permanent Princess Parking. AAs problem is a CEO hellbent on a minimum viable product and our CBAs Scheduling language combined with some seriously near sighted individuals on the company’s side of Crew Scheduling and Strategy. Eventually they will be fixed, but not gonna lie, it can be painful. In the mean time, I trade/drop most of my trips and rebuild with a lot of soft time (free money), which is quite nice. Still significantly better than Active Duty though, by miles.

AA: Pros: Tons of retirements, significantly more than any other legacy. Seniority is everything. Wide body international flying. If you desire international narrow body, tons of Caribbean/Central America destinations. Easy flying, I either sit reserve in base or afternoon flying, no more than 2 legs a day, I rarely set an alarm clock. Can do turns or 4 days. Average Calendar Day + Sit time. Sick if Needed. In house union (I view this as a pro, others don't. We have lots of control over our Committees.) Work rules can be advantageous but they are not simple and take effort. Cons: AA Pilot group is apathetic and morale is low. Great news is see first sentence above. Current CEO/COO are cheap, and management is very old fashioned "we are management, you are labor." Culture is the opposite of SWA. Lots of debt. Hopefully our Scheduling issues can be fixed in the next contract, but management will drag it out for years... and most senior AA pilots (as in age, not seniority number) just want to get paid and go home before they retire <2025. Despite the above, it still beats Active Duty by a long shot, for both pay and time off.

It happens. We’ve had guys float six months earning reserve guarantee. Either the CKA forgets to turn in their qualification paperwork, or they go non-current as a Reserve dude… so they never search legal for trips but also are never actively removed from a sequence. it’s a good deal when you get it. And unlike the military, you are not expected to do the companies job to notify them when they’ve screwed up.

Congratulations, one more pass over and you get paroled early… just in time for the major boom in hiring. Timing is everything, availability is key and you hit the jackpot. The airlines are surprisingly full of passed over Captains (me) laughing all the way to the bank. Let me know if you have any questions on the process. It seems scary, but it’s truly the best thing to ever happen to you.

I am late to the party (closed about 2 months ago) but just got back to these boards. Big props to Jon for helping us buy a house in the middle of a huge winter storm, requiring day by day adjustments on the property tax numbers with a terrible (seller agent chosen) title company. Biggest compliment also came from our Realtor who said she had never heard of Trident Home Loans before and was initially suspicious of an out of state, unknown broker... but even then she was singing praises of how responsive and helpful Jon (and the THL staff) was, especially during the last week before closing where all the shenanigans happened.

Y’all shouldn’t care about any of this. You are the other 50%. The key is availability. I bet all 6 destination jobs will be hiring by the end of the year.

We have also seen a lot of pent up demand. Everyone has been working for a year+ and has a ton of saved up vacation to use. Problem is they have nowhere to go, if they can even go at all. All airlines think business travel will be back, and all gave a similar example - the second someone loses a multi million dollar deal due to Zoom issues, the company will spend a grand to send the salesman in person. edit: AA earnings call said pilot hiring might resume in the "not to distant future" ... whatever that means

It's mostly right wing pundits latching onto single liners without context. He's had a life long challenge with speech and its effects: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/joe-biden-stutter-profile/602401/ https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/accessibility/471707-how-joe-bidens-gaffes-have-affected-his-campaign-and If one doesn't want to vote for Biden, fine... but don't parrot talking points that have nothing to do with policy or positions.