First year pay is about $45,500. Absolutely pathetic in today's world. It is even more pathetic considering that new pilots start at about age 35 with a family. It's a shame that Southwest's pay scale is higher than our 747-400 pay scale. After all, we're only the biggest airline in the world. My expectations have not been reset. I have been called names like "Dark Cloud" on here because of that. Some of us make as little as Burger King employees. That's the reality.

I agree with the system as it is right now, with reference to the first come first served. This way, when you book the seat, you KNOW you have it, and can plan your commute accordingly, versus having someone senior take it from you an hour before departure.

Would imagine that when you book it through the computer that you will get a confirmation number, and it will still be first come first served. Why 5 1/2 days...why not longer?

"Because there is no advantage to it"....

An exact quote from a fDAL type on the webboard.

Nu

No.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4jhHoHpFXc

[quote=satchip;749774]No, management won't give us one penny more that what the market dictates. DALPA can demand all they want but that doesn't change the marketplace. No one can say we are payed below market rates. I didn't say what we think we are worth but what the market says we are worth. One can argue that there are certain carriers that are paying below market rates. Whether true or not those rates tend to depress our market value.

As far as the "pittance" it would take to raise our salary 100k, do you guys read the paper? Do you actually think you will get Joe and Betty sixpack to pay more for an airline ticket so you can get a raise of $100,000? Be real. There is an effective rate of unemployment of 17% in this country. Our revenues are down 10-20% across the board and more in some markets. The fact that we have not furloughed through this downturn is unprecedented. I think DALPA deserves a modicum of credit for that.

Before Carl starts calling me a girl with a grass skirt for not demanding that we stomp our feet and taxi at a slow walk to force the company to pay him, I say to what end? So you can get $300 an hour and I can get furloughed? So I can pay an assessment on my dues for years while you ride off into the proverbial sunset with your retirement intact? No way buddy. I don't want to be paid the most, I want to be paid the longest. You want to help this pilot group? Raise the bottom 2 year pay rates by 10% and gradually reduce the raise as you go up the ladder. That would be worth far more in the long run than raising across the board or raising the WB rate. Time value of money...

The former retirement plans based on last three year earnings have skewed the pay rates negatively for our present system. With a DC it is far better to raise the beginning years rather than the later years. We could phase in the change to minimize the impact on the top enders. For the long run and guys like FTB, Super, Beer, and the rest of the wunderkinder, we need to change our entire philosophy of compensation.

Kudos to our union for reading the tea leaves of the current world and market place and taking a non confrontational business oriented stance. Now lets change our focus from the short term to the long term.[/quote

Stockholm syndrome

Ohhh yes.... it's real. I wonder if any of our more senior brethren on here flew with him?

Yeah, but first come first served via "on line booking"? Hopefully the system is designed so that it's like VRU in that it won't accept a request before the 5.5 days prior period strikes. Otherwise, how would such a system determine who was there first if you can submit the request and it sits there in a que waiting for the 5.5 day point to announce the lucky recipient--the one who first put it in (e.g. many days before the 5.5 day point, or by seniority?). I doubt it will be like VRU in this way, and thus I suspect other factors rather than first come first serve will come into play.

5.5 days is good for most trips... it IS an improvement off of the current system.

What is the % of guys that require the longer call time? I know most of the 330 and 744 trips need it... of course with those a 12 day trip is still beyond even the NWA window.

Um, yea...

You see, way back in 1979, I had this REALLY cool computer that had, GASP, a clock built into it. It could tell time and EVERYTHING.

Seriously, Captain Obvious, do you think we all just started using the jumpseat in 1996 or something?

First come, first served. Means. Exactly. That.

The clock strikes noon, and the person with the quickest finger on the enter key wins. See, computers are really, really fast, and can tell the difference between now and now down to the millisecond.

I mean, I undestand at DAL, "online booking" probably means you have to order your punch card 2-4 weeks in advance from the "first place, right place" person, then you have to painstakenly punch it (no hanging chads, please!), then gently place it in the pile of other punch cards where it all gets loaded into the Univac in a big pile when the sundial showed high noon...but at NWA, where we had "big boy toys", it worked very, very well.

Sheesh....

Nu