Originally Posted by
hockeypilot44
I'm on reserve. I commute so I'm away from home 18 days/month. This keeps me from greenslipping or whiteslipping. I rarely break guarantee due to our wonderful raw score system. 70 hours * $93/hour * 12 months is approximately $78,000 for the year. My wife had a C-section that I had to take unpaid family leave for (3 weeks). My gross pay minus per diem was about $75,000 last year. I have a buddy that started at Southwest about the same time as me. He made just over $120k last year.
SWA has a application window opening. It will help if your buddy puts a recommendation in for you.
Commuting on reserve as you have found out is pure folly. It never happened before we ended up with the best reserve system on the planet. That went away in the 1113 contract. It was simply unheard of when I was a new. If you decide not to go with SWA since you now have a young child the very best advice I can give you is to pick one of the major bases and move to that area. Your life will be a improvement beyond anything you can imagine that involves a commute.
I have one of the easiest commutes around. Short flight, same time zone, 35 plus flights a day on 5 different airlines and no kids at home. Its still sucks! I would not even consider my commute with children at home under this contract.