Originally Posted by
FastNeatAvg
Would it not be fair to argue AAL has done the same thing but with a larger looming shortage of pilots in the near future? Not to discredit anything you’re saying, just comparing the two.
AAL seems to be attempting to hire to keep supply v growth. SWA is hiring to grow rather than replenish. Over the next decade it seems SWA May be in a better spot.
Naturally, who knows?
I agree with your points of caring where you fly. I am in the same boat. May I ask how many days on v day off you typically have?
AA has a huge wave of retirements coming up. Our retirement wave is a ripple by comparison and scattered.
As a line holder, I get 18-19 days off per month..... when I start my line. But because retirement contributions are very important to me as well as the ever-present potential of going out on long term disability, which means just to reach the max payout, you need to make over 20k per month to get the max pay out should the unthinkable happen. So I pick up and I end up working 18-19 days a month. Not being on standby or sitting reserve at home, but actually flying. Some months more. Some months less if I have vacation that month or if I get sick. At Southwest, you'll have to do that for years to come because you will not have an opportunity to upgrade.
Something else... at many other airlines, being on reserve means you often times don't fly. At Southwest, if you aren't used on reserve, someone higher up gets hockey-punched and then kicked in the nuts because they allowed you to steal from the company. In other words, whereas every other airline tends to use reserves as insurance policy, at Southwest, reserves are used because the company doesn't like people sitting at home getting paid.
And since I mentioned LTD... this company will pretend you're family and a very much LUVed (our CEO constantly tells us he luvs us), but if you get disabled, you might as well be dead to this company. In fact, if you have life insurance through the company, you should hope to die before your sick leave balance runs out because once it does, your life insurance through the company is no longer valid.