Originally Posted by shoelu

"Their pay on a normal day is like ours on a rolling thunder or white slip bonanza."

Now that I more fully understand white vs green slips, it is more accurately a green slip bonanza. We very rarely jump to double time, but Premium Open Time (150%) is abundant. You must remember that EVERY pilot is qualified to fly EVERY trip. You can bid for premium open time in any domicile. The way pilots get to 120TFP+ is through premium pick ups normally, not by working many extra days, the original poster made it to his total averaging 18 days off. SWA rewards greed and there are abundant ways to work the system. Many senior folks won't hardly leave the house for less than 10TFP per day. Senior Captains can bid for low block 1 and 2 day trips and then give them away easily because the low block totals allow others to wedge them into their schedule. They then begin to pick up premium trips. Lance Captains do the same and drop their trips to more junior F.O's so they are able to pick up CA trips at CA pay. The junior folks are happy to pick up the trips if they want to increase their line totals and are unable to win premium trips due to lack of seniority. Lather rinse repeat. We run around 10% reserves so the system completely relies on pilots picking up open time. I flew with a senior CA last week that averaged 150TFP in 2011. If you do the math and add in 401K match and profit sharing it is well north of $365,000. Those totals are certainly not the norm, but it is possible.