Harold Finch

Here's one of them. In my opinion, the biggest QOL issue of them all. The holidays are here. Presto, I have the entire week of Thanksgiving off as well as Christmas week off. As a matter of fact, I always get ever day off I need throughout the year. Weekends off, holidays off, parties off etc. Get the point. My quality of life is awesome. This t/a will not change a thing. I have always bid senior. It ain't that hard. Stop chasing the money and your career will be awesome. I am seeing it everyday on the line both ways. Some new hires staying put and getting senior in seat and others choosing the "bigger" airplane and others bidding captain! Are you kidding me? Your quality of life is going to be awful. Your family life could be damaged. The 330 is not going anywhere. The 7er is not going anywhere. Be patient. Yes, I know there are other QOL issues at play but monthly schedule bidding is the the biggest of them all. Happy Holidays!

GyroNole

Harold, PM Sent


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Scoop

But its much more fun (forum-wise) to bid up and then complain about how crappy your QOL is.

FWIW - I agree 100% with your post.

Scoop

Denny Crane

I'll tell you what, I'm VERY junior on my equipment and my QOL is pretty awesome too! I've never called in sick over a holiday and yet, in just under 30 years, I've only had a trip over Christmas twice and one of them was a layover at home. Know your contract!

Denny

sailingfun

It's funny how much some pilots like to run down the contract and claim such poor quality of life. I flew with a guy not long ago who complained about everything. He then talked about his schedules and how much his retro would be. He was probably averaging about 9 days a month working and netting 100 hours a month! I see this time after time. In fact it often seems the complainers have amazing schedules! We also seem to glorify other airlines like SWA as shining beacons of QAL when it's not nearly as great as claimed. See below.

I was hired at SWA 9 and a half years ago at age 46. I live just under a 3 hour drive to my base. The first year here I blocked over 900 hours. Now, I'm doing between 550-600. I try to fly no more than 12 days a month. For me that's 85-90 TFP. I occasionally get a premium trip, but that's somewhat limited because many are short notice that I'm unable to do.

What I'm getting at is that I'm somewhat burned out. I used to fly long haul international on 10-12 day trips. But I rarely flew half the days I was away and never more than 400 hours a year. At SWA if you will fly every day on your schedule, sometimes over 8 hours, then have a 12 hour rest and go again. It can be quite exhausting (at least to this 56 year old).

If you plan on 113 TFP, be prepared to work for it, especially in the early low seniority years. Good luck in your decision, but if it was me, I'd go to FedEx, maximize retirement savings and retire by 60.

BobZ

Its in the constitution..... and the un charter on human rights...... pilots get to complain.... no matter what.

contrails

Alright Harold let me get this straight.

You're okay with QOL being "awful" for people that are junior in a category.

And out of ~14,000 pilots, the bottom 20-30% of each category are what most would call 'junior' right?

So you're fine with QOL being "awful" for about 4,000 pilots of the total seniority list?

Someone has to be in those positions.

Harold Finch

You are correct. Someone does have to fly over the holidays, weekends, redeyes, early morning out of Buffalo, last flight into Bozeman with the tower closed etc. In most businesses, the crappy stuff goes to junior guy. It has to be done, unfortunately.

contrails

You did not fully answer the question -- what you describe above does not have to be awful.

Holiday pay
Night pay (somewhat addressed in the TA)
Crew meals for early reports

Why are you okay with using the word "awful" for 4,000 pilot positions?

gliderguider

Besides the obvious cliche, what is the point of this thread?