please expand on this overlap into 2nd year pay thing

Why don't you PM him and ask him his employee number so you can look at his board. I promise you that RJSAviator76 TFPs totals are correct. He's probably not much more senior then you. He does have the advantage of being beyond 1st year, so anything from TTGA pays the same as straight open time.

For the last six weeks the open time market has been pretty dry, but I still made 129 in October and am on track for 125 in November. I'm actually having some of my best months ever when it comes to days worked/block vs. pay due to the low reserve utilization. There is still flying out there, there's plenty in TTGA, I still see reserves being used (their assignments not taken by extra fly), and unawarded rsv blocks in open time. However, things will return to normal soon, flying will pick up going into the holidays and we will go from 700ish airplanes today to 750 by the end of 2018. This is just a temporary lull due to the classic retirements.

Your assessment seems very reasonable for Phoenix. I have tried premium as well outside of the summer, and you are right. Weekday stuff gets picked up
straight by senior guys once they are over the cap. My buddy is in Denver and has more luck there. I caveat this with me not working weekends which you are in the same boat, because you are on reserve then. I chose not to and highly appreciate that I can do that after 2 years. Working 12 days and crediting 100 tfp means averaging more than 8 tfp per day. You can do that more easily if you fly on the weekend. It gets better once you get a blank line. But I disagree with the posts that the money is easily made. Flying a 24.90tfp paying three day is work, as it means one 11 hour duty day followed by a short overnight and so on. It blocks 21 hours...
Hang in there, because it gets better quickly as seniority improves!

“... the original line total is defined as: the value of all flying and non-fly events on the line after the completion of the vacation overlap, month to month overlap and recurrent training adjustments, excluding any MOT, DOT, POT, SNOT,VPF, and JA carried in from the previous month. “

All in the Contract.

Looks like I need to explain my comment a little bit more. Please keep in mind that my intent is to not make this a “look at how much money I can make” post. I just want to inform those looking in from the outside that SWA is a very good option over the Legacy carriers. I hope it also serves as a reminder to the younger guys out there that saving early is your best option. Here goes.

Take a look at the attached spreadsheet. These number are on the conservative side.

1) They are based on last year’s pay rates. We will continue to see our pay go up for the next 4 years and over the course of my 35 year career I will likely see more pay raises.

2) Based on 100 TFP a month. My experience says that is based on if you basically only fly your line. Most don’t and are able to make extra TFP without trying. (Ie. move up pay, vacation drops, etc.)

3) 12 year upgrade. I don’t have a crystal ball but based on the direction this industry is going Incan assume it will be fewer than 12 years to upgrade.

Some other things to consider:

1) I started at age 29. The spreadsheet only shows starting at 31.
2) Like everyone else I began working at SWA with money in other retirement accounts.
3) I max out 2 IRA accounts (1 for the wife and one for me) which alone should yield 1.4 mil. If your making this kind of money anyone can afford it.
4) Max out your contributions. The spreadsheet shows maxing out at close to upgrade time most will and should do it as soon as they can afford to.


So now, look at the spreadsheet: Let’s take a look at the 5% return column for retirement (I’m an optimistic guy) equates to 4.4 Mil.

Now look at the profit sharing: This money can be placed in Top Hat accounts if you max out your 401k. Again 5% return 1.4 Mil.

Put it all together and what do you get? 7.2 Milllion. Again, assume pay doesn’t go up for 35 years. I feel quite confident that number will actually be higher.

I’m happy to provide the spreadsheet to anyone who wants to plug in their own numbers, just PM me.

Now, Fire away..... :o

FlyingPirate, you are right. I’m slightly older than you and actually met with a financial advisor and we can up with similar numbers.

What you have on this thread is a few “haters” stirring the pot.

Beans, so where do you work?

BTW, in November average days off system wide was roughly 17.25 days and an average credit of 97tfp.

Upgrade times
 

It’s hard to predict upgrade times. In fact one of my interview questions was how I felt about a 15 year upgrade. I’m at 80% in 3.5 and flew with a captain last week that’s at 60% seniority. There was a lull in hiring after I was hired so the growth has occurred mostly in the last 2.5 years. It’s possible I could be looking at a sub 7 year upgrade but that’s using simple math and assuming we keep hiring at this rate for another 3. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it dip to 6 years if we get a couple more bases and ETOPS certification since I believe STL and LAX will be junior and I think we will have a higher rate of those choosing to remain as FOs. Career earning jumps big time with the upgrade and imo life on the line is the same regardless of seniority. I believe those hired 2013-now will be riding a nice 5 year wave with upgrades less than 10.

Eventually hiring will drop down to the level required to replace attrition. I’m betting around 10,000 total pilots but that’s just a wag.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My WAG is 12,000

Lol...we all know what they say about opinions 😉

Bottom line exciting time to be here.

Beans, where are ya buddy?