Originally Posted by
shoelu
Not everything is better at SWA, not even close, but if you want to listen to reason, some things are better at Southwest.
I am a middle list dweller and have October vacation. My month has me working 8 days with 23 days off. My vacation length is 19 consecutive days. My compensation is 92 TFP.
Most of this is directly due to different bidding systems. We do not have pref bid so lines are not built around known absences. We have available outside vendor software programs that will take your vacation month and apply contractual trip pull language to guide you toward either the most time off for the vacation (what I did) or the highest pay for the vacation period.
Those that choose to optimize pay routinely credit 120-130TFP during vacation months while maintaining a normal 18 day off average. Those that shoot for max time off will see greatly reduced compensation.
Good for you. But from what I read it really isn't all that different. You have 19 days of vacation stretched into 23? I have 9 stretched into 18. Your pay might be better though, with that Chinese pay system it's hard to say. But the similarities are that those that choose to maximize pay will work harder for it. We can do the same thing. I'm taking the time off. And ours is getting better with each contract. Not good enough for some on here.. but much better. Thanks for the contribution to the discussion.