You took a dip below them in 2001-2002 didn't you?

Still haven't made it back.

The first concessions were in 04.

Spring of 2001 contract was signed that put a 777 CA at $319/hr. Concessions came a few years later. So, no.

9 years - my bad. Much better than 12.

Sure, SWA compensates their pilots well. But if it wasn't for their business model, the American public wouldn't expect/demand $69 air fares, thus putting downward pressure on legacy fares and legacy pilot compensation as a result.

I'm sure it does. Thats probably just per month, not per hour.

You failed to answer my question. But that's not surprising.

Honest question. How would you (or anyone) know when someones rate exceeds SWA? According to this website, our top CA is about 40 bucks higher than the top SWA CA. I don't know how accurate the conversion from TFP to hourly rate is. My question is, what are you basing your figures and assumptions on?

see the threads where the W-2 earnings are posted. Rates have nothing to do with it, since SW pilots get paid completely different. You can make more a hour, but if you average 65 hours, and someone else averages 160 "trip" hours, the pay will be different. But I conclude in looking at the W-2 earnings threads to get a better idea. Cheers!

Yeah rob, I understand the basics of the TFP. It was more a question to someone making claims they can't back up, and that current trends don't support.

He seems to think that SWA being paid higher than another airline makes the lower paid guy upset. I'm quite the opposite. I'm glad that they make more now. I wish UCal had blown us out of the water compensation wise. I hope that AA/LCC does. It's airlines that are way below average compensation (in all ares) and don't bargain up, that bothers me. SWA was that airline for many, many years. Now there are others that have filled the gap that SWA left. Hopefully the big airline's management teams have learned from the past and will act accordingly.