SWA or AA for a DFW guy?
 

Ive read a lot of things but the info is really spread out and makes it hard to make a comparison. I live in the DFW area. Just finished training at SWA so I am pretty up to date on what a career flying for SWA would be like. Just got an interview from AA, which is where I always figured I would go living in DFW. But I have enjoyed the training and culture so far at Southwest.

I am mainly looking for things that are better working at AA then SWA. I know all of the obvious like not having to fly the 737 the rest of my career and WB flying is available. I know AAs retirement numbers are much better. I am looking for more in depth info like AA pilots fly less legs for the same money, or work less days, or drop trips easier. Things like that.

I have 33 years left flying, so this is a big long term decision. The main thing that bothers me about AA is their financials, as they are not near as stout as SWAs. I appreciate any input. And yes this is not the only way I am looking for information, but there is a lot of activity here so I figured I would look to get some info.

The progression at AA is going to be much better especially over the next decade. I know what I'd be doing, especially with 33 years left.

Leave for AA ASAP, I live in the DFW area as well and turned down a job at SWA for AA. The latest plan is AA is hiring 2000/year for the next three years at least for retirements and aircraft/block hour growth. DFW will continue to grow with more gates coming to terminal A and C and eventually terminal F. The seniority movement is like nothing we’ve seen in our lifetimes.

I’d go to AA. Flying a 737 forever would be like jail time.

I'd say in 33 years there is just has much chance of SWA adding a 2nd type to the fleet as there is of AA filing for bankruptcy.

You will here a lot of complaining about AA on here, and yes financials are a concern, but on a day to day basis, this is a pretty dang good job. Great pilots to work with. I never worked at SWA but get the impression that they are much more a go, go, go mentality, like getting a mission done in the military. Here it is slow down, get it done safely, take care of each other (crew level at least). Schedules can be manipulated, but you need to educate yourself on how to do that here. DFW is the mega base, movement on the NB CA side in DFW is ridiculously quick right now. Time to hold CA is dropping (usual caveats about age 67). FO movement here is also quick. Any desire to be a CKA or in management, or union positions, you are in the right spot. Non rev easily to Hawaii, Europe, S America, etc. SWA would be great too, so good problem to have, definitely take the interview at AA and speak with many pilots in person if you can, take it all through a filter as some folks are very prone to sport *****, but will usually concede that this is a great job. Find some pilots that worked at both, there are quite a few here that jumped ship from SWA, probably the same over there. You said skip the obvious, but upgrade time and WB positions are a consideration. Even if you don’t want to fly WB, it artificially boosts your seniority on the NB side here.

We also don’t have the AM/PM flying schedule that I hear SWA has. So we have trips that sign in in the afternoon and finish in the morning and vice versa for example, pretty decent variety in DFW. We have a variety of legs per day as well, from zero to four, but usually 1-3 in DFW. The coasts get more 1 leg a day stuff. On reserve in DFW you’ll get lots of short easy 1 leg days with DH’s as well as they break trips up to fill them.

Especially flying 10 legs a day.

One of my wife’s biggest points is that the AA system isn’t run very well at all, resulting in lots of cancellations and delays and rerouts which makes for frustrated pilots. She saw it when I worked the regional system and says it will be the same thing at AA. Most of their customers don’t like AA or have great things to say about them. The customer service and gate agents are generally rude and produce very frustrated customers. This is something that I think SWA does very well. And their customer base is very supportive of them.

As a pilot do any of those things affect your attitude while on the job and your happiness level to go to work?

i think the culture (and cancellation levels) have changed over the years at SWA. There are currently zero airlines that have a happy pilot group right now. AA and SWA are both great places to be if you can keep your head out of the funk.

With almost no weather this summer, supposedly DFW ran great, haha