Some people have it figured out more than others, that's for sure.

 

Heyas,

There is a lot of soft time built into the way the "trips" work at SWA. There is a major disconnect between actual flight time and credit.

Imagine, if you will, that DTW-ATL was blocked at 1:30, and hit that mark %95 of the time. But, that particular leg gets paid at 2:00 because of the way the contract works. Lets also say that you actually need to fly 2:10 before you start to make any money on "block or better".

There isn't a lot of incentive to make time on that leg, in fact, you might as well go fast, because the chances of making any time are near zero and you can get to your place in line at Chick-fil-A that much quicker.

Now lets say you have a month of those. By the end of the month, your credit time is 80, but your actual flight time is 60. Now you can pick up another day or two and rack up some more credit.

This system only works if there is a pay system in place that chronically pays significantly more than actual flight time, and a "pad" before you get to making more money for longer flight times. This would also explain, the, er, hustle, because the more flight time you save, the more you can pick up.

Pilots are pilots, no matter who they work for. There wouldn't be the "hustle" unless some fiscal incentive was attached to it.

Nu

 

Well, at least the passengers do their part... until the FA kicks them off.

You know you can't win.

 

Nu pretty much hit the nail on the head, it is a greed based system that works well for the pilots and management.

Here is the analogy I use when explaining the WN pay system to friends at other carriers; if somebody asks you to build them a deck and offers you $5000 to build it, are you going to milk the job out all season long, or build it quickly so you can build another deck that season?

 

I think Glen more or less hit it out of the park with that analogy.

110 - 120 tfp = 85 ish hours per month. A little ELITT here, little ELITT there, some VJA, er POT, work the DH route, or trips heavy on the rigs, ..., ah, it's alright.

FTB,

We (most pilots) were collectively embarrassed about that one. Travesty really.

 

This thread is almost becoming civilized. What happened to all the @$$-holes?

 

Still here!

 

Despite the title of this thread, and the better payrates of SWA, it seems like the real professional windfall is tilted toward the SWA guys, not AirTran.

They are getting a different fleet, international operations and know-how, more basing choices, expanded business operations, NYC flying, ATL flying, etc.

The SWA pilots think that integration should be by w-2 and not status and category...now thats rich. They are the big winners in this.

 

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You've got to remember, if you put the trash out then we'll come and knock it over. Especially if you're still standing there.

No trash, no us.