Originally Posted by
finis72
Their big w-2's come from 2 areas; one is as you say higher daily minimums( work rules) which was my biggest disappointment with this TA, the other is their ability to fly up to the FAR max at premium pay which would be great for me but not good for our junior pilots. I wish we could cherry pick but the pie is only so big. Large w-2's can be a double edged sword.
There is not a lot of sit time at SWA because a lot of their flying consists of through flights. They may start in BWI, but they stay on the same plane and hit 3 or 4 cities before ending up in ONT. They do that everyday. They fly the max, and are paid well too. We don't do that type of flying, instead relying on hub and spoke, with some waits. Hard to compare. But, we have more variety in flying, and with this TA, higher pay when including the DC funding, which is better overall too. I asked an MCO based captain if he enjoyed his trips and long days with lots of legs, and he said it grew old after year one.