As written by Shoelu -

"You keep mentioning the seniority bump that came to SWA pilots in this integration and yes there was some increased seniority awarded but in the vast majority of cases that increase was to counteract younger pilots being placed in front of SW pilots on the list. My seniority was bumped and each and every point of that increase is eroded every day until the time of my retirement where I end up within one tenth of a percentage point in relative seniority to where I would have ended up with out the AirTran acquisition.
shoelu is offline Report Post "



So your saying the DATA a few of us crunched by using BOTH GROUPS SENIORITY LIST SNAPSHOTS AND THE SLI MERGED LIST is not true?


Are you saying that your seniority is going to move backwards over time?
For example : Just say you are the number 1,000 guy right now. Over time you are going to move to the 1050, then 1200 etc... over the years? Are you also saying you for example were at 30 % on the snapshot SEP 2010. When the SLI was done - you became around 24%. Over the next few years you are going to move back to 30 % and then a few more years you will be at 45 % and then you will not be a CAPTAIN anymore because you are past 52 % and you retire as an F/O? Really.

Wow. Just like the few hundred AirTran Captains who had been a captain for nearly approx. 6, 8 years and will now be F/O's when they retire in the next 12 -15 years.

Go ahead, SW pilots - repeat what you usually do. They are going to make "Millions" more. Do you think most airline pilots aspire to retire as First Officers. Really.

Not saying that is not possible because if you bought American or UAL and did what you did to AirTran - in theory you may very well have a higher number on a new list because the list would be larger BUT your RELATIVE seniority would be better. Just based on what your group does to other airline pilots. AND - those bottom 10% of CAPTAINS from AA or UAL would be placed in with the bottom 5-8 % of the SWA pilot list , right? Then, basically staple the F/O's behind pilots with DOH's 4 years after them, right? I mean, at least they were not all stapled like the others, only fair - right? Tell them they have now lost their B fund but they gained the awesome Culture of SWA and the fantastic ability to call in Fatigued when they are tired. Every Captain loses their seats but will be allowed to try and go thru the full upgrade if their new seniority allows it, after a few years of course. The Captains will take pay cuts But, But, the F/O's will be paid more per hour for their staple. After all, some had sent in applications to work at SWA in the past. That is only fair. What a concept. Why not negotiate all CBA's for individuals. The hourly is based on where they may have sent an application in their past. Also, new hire seniority based on where they may have interviewed.
By the way, tell them if they don't like it - we will go down the list of what we have done to other airlines in the past and they will be unemployed in a couple of years.