Airline Pilot Central Forums - The reality of the first year or two.

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- - The reality of the first year or two. (https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/southwest/103167-reality-first-year-two.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by e6bpilot (Post 2372733)

This question has such a wide variety of answers due to the working habits of individuals here.
For flying your line only, 12-14 days a month.
Some are able to give away and drop days and get that number way down.
I bid a line this month that worked 11 days. I was able to drop 5 of those days so far.
Some guys will work more than 20 days this month of their own accord.
That's just SWA.

I should have clarified.....once off of reserve, how many days are junior lineholders working? I was under the impression that SWA guys arent on reserve that long (not sure where I heard that) but once off of reserve, I'm I really looking at getting about 17-18 days off a month if I want? Thanks guys, I appreciate the information

Just finished my first year. Picked up OT here and there whenever it was easy. Total pay during my first 12 months, which includes 2 months of training, was $91k. Of that, $17000 was from open time picked up at 2nd year pay. I live driving base from base, but try to pick up out-of-domicile trips that go through my commute city, which is 20 minutes from home.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sherpster (Post 2372750)

How long you're on reserve depends on the domicile. I'm off probation and some of my classmates never even tasted a line beyond the first month hard line... I was on reserve maybe half of my probationary year. It really depends on the base.

If I'm not mistaken, all of our lines are built with 17-18 off unless you have overlap...

16+ days off for lineholders. I've seen 20-21 days off but not many. Most are the 16-18 off range.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Proximity (Post 2372686)

Right now it takes ten years just to hold bottom FO in Atlanta

True but this is a backwards looking and extremely misleading statement that ranks right up there with:

Swa pilots fly 6 legs a day
Swa will never go international
It takes 2 years to get off reserve in Oakland
It takes 5 years to get into Dallas

At one time all these statements were true.

If you believe that every single former AirTran pilot not currently in Atlanta is going to bid back, and Atlanta is not going to ever grow, and a very high percentage of pilots junior to AirTran guys also want to bid into Atlanta then I would agree it will stay at around 10 years to hold.

Many of the junior AirTran pilots took the move package and are never coming back. Many of them commuted to Atlanta and now commute to another base with better seniority. I don't believe for a second that many 10 year guys (who could hold captain in another base) will bid FO reserve in Atlanta.

Atlanta is very senior now, imo it will be very junior in 3-4 years. I may be off by a year or two but unless Swa merges with Delta there's no way that it stays as senior as it is now forever.