^^^^^^
Upgrade is a HUGE issue facing SW that unfortunately is out of anyone's hands. By comparison, FedEx, UPS and the majors are seeing upgrades ranging from 4 months to 2 years.
Delta is 4 mos in NYC on the -88. You can hold 717/-88 in ATL in a year or two...anywhere else it's 8-10+. Fedex is a yr on the 757 and after training is done will be more like 2-2.5. UPS doesn't have anywhere close to a 2 yr upgrade unless you're a scum mgt pilot off the street. UAL is around 8-10+ right now. AA is a year or less only on th E-190 in PHL...anywhere else is 10+.
Red-eyes, stale 'LUV' culture, long hours with multiple legs, archaic and abusive reserve policies, starting too early (2am body clock), ending too late (most PMs end around or after midnight) , crappy/loud hotels, lack of competitive long term disability, new code share
horrible training (no type= up to 25% career impacting event failures) and pay/overtime (premium??) that falls well short of other majors, and you have a ship that sailed. An apples to apples comparison might align 737 pay to majors (for today), but it negates the income opportunities in WB aircraft and much quicker upgrades.
We don't do redeyes. We have redeye language in the new TA but I don't see many being built simply because of the rest requirements afterward....they're inefficient and unproductive. RSV could use some tweaking but it's nowhere near as abusive as it was at RAH or many other regionals. I do PM's and usually get in around 9-1am...I've never started at 2am body clock time in the yr I've worked here. Hotels should be in a downtown location for longer overnights but I've had no problems with the Doubletree/Sheraton/Hyatt brands. I'll take our codeshare language over 400 RJ's any day of the week....read the contract comparison SWAPA put out and in work rules and other metrics we are better than pretty much every other airline. Some small ancillary things we don't have like parking and crew meals. Overall it's not the doom and gloom you made it out to be.
They are now seen as a lower tier choice and junior FOs are leaving in record numbers. Who would have thunk the day would come when SW was losing potential candidates to bottom-feeder ULCC's like Allegiant whose new pay scale is competitive, they're home every night, with quick upgrades, ample growth, and modern equipment.
I don't know anybody that thinks SWA is a low tier airline. Frontier maybe. SWA not really. The only people I know that went to Allegiant left a Regional and are looking to bail ASAP. I know very few who are going to stick it out there due to combative mgt and terrible work rules...you're home every night only if you choose to live in a base...it's not commutable at all. I don't know anyone staying at Frontier. Friends at Spirit seem happy with work rules but pay is terrible. JetBlue, Virgin, and Alaska all make less and have worse work rules.
If SW management expects to attract and keep pilots, it needs to drop its folksy, outdated and tired LUV approach and get serious about it's benefits package and compensation (especially FO years 1-6). From what I'm hearing, those are the year groups most vulnerable to attrition. Matters will likely get worse as hiring at majors accelerates due to retirements. If the trend continues, the hiring might not keep up with attrition.
People aren't quitting here because of free parking. They're quitting because for the first time in 16 years every airline in the country is hiring and they live closer to another airline's base or they think they'll have an easier commute with a quicker upgrade. If you work here and don't like it, well DL has a 4 month upgrade if you want to sit RSV in NYC covering 3 airports.