Originally Posted by
LAfrequentflyer
Yeeah...Right....SWA hired people with violations and DWIs. Do you go out of your way to make things up about one of the safest airlines in the world?
-LAFF
I'm not sure if SWA only hired losers before "their time" but her thought process is correct - all the carriers that are the "to be" place right now were the crap places 10 years ago. Heck even UPS was a place where people went to wait for a call from Delta.
Airtran, CAL, UPS, FedEx, SWA, Spirit, Allegiant, (any ACMI) were all bottom feeders at one point (or still are). The legacies were so desirable because they were a great place to be, their union contracts made them like that. You think senior CA's at the regionals have good schedules/good W2's, you should've seen what it was like at the legacies pre-911.
And I would say you are nuts if you stay to work for a subcontractor. It's much, much, better to work for yourself. That being said, I can see how people can be lulled into it. Once you hit a certain point, and start living above or even at your means as a regional CA, you can't just take the paycut if you have a family. Moral of the story - don't do anything that will prevent you from making a good career move (ie get in debt, buy an expensive car, etc.).