Originally Posted by
greaser
I know this isn’t one of the options you asked about, but at the other big airline in SFO, the widebody flying is so desirable that the narrow body seniority movement is fast. UAL is on the cusp of hiring street Captains - if that’s something important to you.
And reserve in base is a pretty decent life.
On the other hand, come next year you might get forced into the left seat in Newark!
But that plug aside, turbo I would look at other areas of the contract for the 2 birds you have in hand. If you’re 50, what does it take to retire at either if you want to punch before 65? How does the LTD compare? What’s a typical day or months work (not from APC randos but surely you must have contacts at either place who can personally share) to see what better suits you.
These are all great points. A bunch of my SWA buddies have shared their bid awards, and then shared the actual month of flying they actually did, after all the scheduling adjustment magic you can do at SWA. In most cases, the final lines looked almost nothing like the initial awards, which is a good thing. That's a huge plus for me. Not because I don't want to work, but because the ability to significantly alter one's awarded line by moving around days off, is a huge QoL benefit in my opinion m
One of the forum members here was kind enough to send me a bid packet for AS/ SFO. In looking at the typical lines, honestly all I really am hoping to have, is the ability to move like one trip a month to different days. Simply because that would allow me to create longer periods of time off, followed of course by longer periods of intense work. At my current shop it's literally impossible to move a local to a different day.
The current state of the pilot/ management labor relationship at SWA is also, naturally, reason for concern. But on the other hand, reading these threads, it doesn't look like the contract negotiations at AS were a lot of fun either. I saw that video of your COO staring down the picketing pilots (yikes). I suppose all of these negotiations can get a bit performative, though, and probably bear little relationship to actual life on the line. But it sounds like y'all have a more cordial dynamic with management now?