SWA was all set to do etops flying. We had the planes and maintenance certified, had a training program approved for the pilots, and then things suddenly changed.
Like everything done here, it was done on the cheap and rather than taking an already proven program from another airline, we treated it like we were landing on the moon and re-engineered it Texas style. Rather than tapping into the expertise of the many pilots here who have flown across vast oceans, they deferred to the F-teeners who made up the project pilot Force at the time.
I have a feeling that version 2.0 will be much different. The new pilot contract has an etops subset and it will be done by base and not by trying to train 9,000 pilots at once. The training center has also taken a turn for the better and seems more interested in trying to put out quality training rather than the cheapest possible product.