Who needs a jacket? Policy lets you wear whatever you want outdoors, just take it off in the terminal if it isn't an approved blazer or leather jacket.

Pay raise with new contract should help a lot. It's easy to justify delaying a jacket purchase when your first year W2 is under $35k. Better payscale might lead to earlier uniform jacket purchases by more new hires. Maybe.

By comparison, the new SWA jackets are decidedly casual in appearance, and to my eye look European in style. Seems to be split opinions on how professional it looks. Still, any official jacket worn is probably better than an unapproved jacket hung over the luggage handle, right?