Thank you for rewording exactly what I said. Not sure why you did, but I said "there's no way to say what would have happened at Southwest...", because there isn't. Nothing happened other than WARN notices being sent out, dated way in the future. Before we even got to the date of the WARN notices premium was flowing and JA's were happening, so the gig was up. It believe it was obvious in my post that everything after WARN notices being sent out was an opinion. I doubt you will find a Southwest pilot who will seriously say that the WARN notices would have been followed by furlough notices. This in no way excuses management from what they did, it was still 100% wrong.

There's quite a bit of complaining on APC which needs to put in context. Southwest was the place to be for the period spanning 2001 - 2008. I interviewed at a "legacy" in 2008 and pay started at $30k and benefits didn't start for six months. I was just hoping to get the 737 type out of them so I could be more competitive for Southwest, because that was the way things were back then. My big fear at the time was being so junior as to be assigned the 777. Due to 2008 recession that position never happened and the furloughs started again at the legacies in earnest.

These days, Southwest probably isn't #1 for most applicants. However, make no mistake, it's still a pretty decent job. I've looked extensively at going elsewhere, but I'd be giving up total compensation, schedule flexibility, value of vacation, and have to accept PBS. Southwest no doubt will get a contract with Delta rates and full retro and in comparison to my friends at Delta and United, I make more for the same days worked. That's said, that takes some work with conflict bidding vacation/monthly overlap, looking for trips to put back together, etc. If you are a "fly your line" type of person, you'd likely be better off elsewhere. Southwest also has the strongest balance sheet out of the 4 airlines that carry the majority of US passengers and isn't going anywhere soon.