Likely be on weekend reserve for 4-6 months. Thurs would be doable if you bid Fri starts. There’s some Sun starts so you’d be home part of the day if you bid PM but I wouldn’t plan on Sun night dinners until you have some bidding power.

PSA: the Flight shirts without eyelets are live for purchase.

Uniforms...

I'm one of the minority that actually really like the M&H pants. I've tried several of the usual haggar varieties and none worked. The company store in training has a couple of fabric options, flat or pleated fronts, and with or without "comfort stretch" waistbands. They are all an "upscale" wool blend that actually handle machine washing and tumble drying ok as long as you don't over-do the drying and keep the wash cycle cold and fairly short. I have 2 pairs that are 3.5 yrs old and still serviceable in spite of off-label care in the washing machine. Some people REALLY hate the wool blend fabrics though and they do cost about $80-$90 per pair compared to $50-$60 for black haggar, so... I figure one new pair of pants per year isn't going to break the bank so I'm going for whatever fits best and for me the company pants fit well.

As for the shirts... I'm shaped like a pear that swallowed a grapefruit so there isn't a shirt on the planet that would look nice for me. Therefore I took my shirt supplier cue from the amount the company reimburses me for uniforms. The company gives me not one cent towards my appearance, so I buy the second-cheapest shirts I can find. That happens to be the Van Heusen "commander" shirts you can find anywhere including the company store. The cheaper "aviator" shirts pill up and can look really embarrassing even to me after just a few washes. The commander shirts can be machine washed and if you hang them up out of the dryer while just barely damp, you can get away without ironing them without attracting too much attention. If the company wants me to wear nicer shirts I'm sure they'll find some way to tell me, perhaps they'll even provide a specific contractual dollar amount I'm supposed to put towards uniforms. Maybe someday but that's a company give if they ever decide to care what brand of clothing I wear or how nice it should be. Cheap shirts are in compliance with company uniform policy so my suggestion is to buy cheap unless you already have something you KNOW fits you well enough to justify any additional expense. Kind of like the pants... The haggar pants are cheap and compliant, so lots of people wear them. I like the company pants better so I pay a bit extra to get those instead. The company dictates the style but not the supplier because they don't contribute anything to my uniform expenses.

Shoes... Just don't brag about how comfortable your employee handbook compliant shoes are, even if they really do feel like sneakers. Because professionals like us have to wear uncomfortable shoes according to that briefing we got in training last year. It's ok to just buy nice dress shoes that are super comfortable, apparently you can't talk about them though? I might have missed the point of that class, still not sure.

Yes it would be nice if we got some $$$ towards uniforms. But we are professionals that make a really good living and have a lot of responsibility. Do yourself and everyone that you represent a favor and try to look professional on the job. Iron your shirts and get your shoes shined.

I think check airman applications closed already.

New peeps are getting Sunday - Wednesday PM reserve, base of choice (ok, a few exceptions like ATL) within 3 months on line.

A good start for the shoe shines , would be for you to offer free shoe shines on your days off at the base lounges. ( could even offer on your layovers ) Put up or shut up .

Nice! Thanks for the input. Sounds like a great time to come onboard.

Thats base dependent. I could do research and see in my base what hire date would give you weekend off rsv or Sun starts….but I really don’t want to.

Point is…you can’t request weird days off being Jr. Try and trade off or give away but you get the blunt end of the stick until you build seniority.

I’m close to going from 3 day PM’s with Tues starts to weekend rsv in the other seat….I could bypass to keep my QOL if I wanted Sat/Sun at home or make the jump and deal with it. I’m gonna deal with it. Prob have better trips on rsv than holding a line anyway…they’re awful lately.

The quickest and best thing you can do to improve your QOL at SWA is to GET A LINE. Any line. This especially applies to commuters.

Reserves lose out on QOL and pay improving tools like ELITT, TTGA (for the most part it's impossible to trade or give away reserve), vacation pull, overlap pull, pay protection for next day reroutes, etc etc etc.

The worst line is better than the best reserve. There are very few people who prefer reserves in "slow" months, but with utilization well above 80 percent, those don't really exist any more.