Yea, I'm sure it's very boring. Chat with FA's, eat some first class crew meals and just relax before arriving to a nice layover in a European city. Or...fly to places like Branson, Missouri and look for the nearest Waffle House to wine n dine..

True. Most flying is boring. At the end of the day, variety of flying can keep it interesting. Regardless, both carriers are good choices.

What? You don't have CPDLC? Now, just two SELCAL checks.

GF

A 2014 Delta hire that dove over from Airtran after southwest bought them held 717 captain today, while his counterparts that didn't leave still can't hold Atlanta FO at southwest.

So how quickly could a new hire hold BWI with SWA vs NYC with DAL?

Awesome to hear for that guy! I'm super happy for that guy. Good to hear some of us jumped ship and it turned out well.

Both right out of training or shortly thereafter. Negligible to be honest.

Think he got NYC right? I think a Jan of 14 guy got ATL 88A.

Seems to me that SWA has hired a lot in the last 15 years. How long are the upgrades today and what are they going to be 5 years from now if and when SWA reaches a slow growth status quo?

A good chunk of SWA's success has been through growth that keeps labor costs low due to young new hires in all work groups that are on lower pay scales, have less vacation and use less sick days, just like AA in the 1980's. Lately, I've seen plenty of SWA crews that look as old as AA's.

When I got hired at AA, the guy hired 4 years before me made CA in 5 years.

It took me 18 to hold it at a "junior" base. SWA isn't going to grow forever and the numbers get ugly real fast when the average CA is only 10-15 years older than you as a new hire.

Another comment was on future South America growth. Let's clear this up. With a 737, the growth options are Central America, the Caribbean and "a little" South America consisting of Colombia and Venezuela and one city in Ecuador, Guayaquil.
We can scratch off Venezuela. As for Colombia, the 737 is a weight restricted POS that uses 10K' of runway to barely make MIA from Bogota. Medellin isn't much better, lots of fun going back to the gate for offload with a +1c temp change. Cali isn't bad and BAQ is just another low rent stop. The rest is already covered up with Spirit and AA lowballing half the seats on it's flights.
The SWA 737 fleet isn't going to raid South America out of DAL, ATL, BWI or bleed to death against Spirit at FLL.

As for the 737, it's a great money maker, but is a POS as far as a work environment for a career. It handles like a turd, the VNAV and autopilot are junk and unless you're under 5'6", and the cockpit is uncomfortable. Family, friends and Wifey's earning $$$ at SWA bases? Go with them. Choose carefully though.

Very interesting . . . I'm not sure anyone has told our Grand Poobahs of these issues, but these problems are only the bane of other, merely mortal airlines. We refuse to be tainted by their experiences. We will invent our own wheel, and it will be ROUNDER!.. :rolleyes: