SWA ATL Base
 

How long to get Atlanta for a new hire?

Thanks

10-12 yrs.

Years. Not sure how many, since it's skewed by the AirTran integration, but years. The most junior FO there has a 2010 hire date. The guy 10 senior to him in ATL has a 2007 hire date.

If you have your heart set on living in base in ATL with Southwest, it's going to be a long wait, I'm afraid.

How long to hold MCO, how's the commute from FLL, is there a possibility of an FLL base? What about international flying to South America any plans?

Hard to say with certainty as no one really knows what the future vacancies at each base will be, but if the past is any indication, the plug in MCO for SEP finished training last month.

FLL-MCO has a lot of frequency since FLL became an intl gateway. I can't speak to how difficult it is, but I have a feeling that it is a lot easier than it used to be.
MCO is a very senior base despite the recent influx of new hires. There are a lot of senior guys hanging out there who aren't going anywhere. The list of senior FOs is pretty long and a lot of guys upgrade in another base rather than waiting it out.

As long as we keep growing the international flying out of FLL, the commute will be somewhat easy.

As for the FLL base, they are waiting for me to move, at which point, they will announce it, or more likely, the top secret RSW mega hub.

I would bet STL before FLL.

As a late 2nd year guy, I can hold anything in the system except ATL.

Skewed is right. Junior went from a 2010 hire to a May 2016 hire over the course of six months. I'm still perplexed as to how quickly that happened.

Easy. The AirTran merger displaced a lot of pilots out of their huge ATL base, which SWA took over and shrank.
Many of those pilots moved but a lot commuted for years waiting to get back into the base.
They just hit the end of the former trannies last month in the vacancy bid. There will still be onesies and twosies that either flow back into atl or bid out to junior bases, but by and large the vacancies are now being filled by pilots hired after 2014 who want to be based in ATL. There are not that many pilots who fit that bill.
Based on this month, I would bet any future growth to ATL is going to be extremely junior pilots, maybe even new hires soon. Most guys post 2014 would take a huge seniority hit by moving to that base, so will stay away unless they live there or can easily commute there.

Commenting from ATL
 

Any idea how tough it would be for a new hire to live in Atlanta area and commute to a Jr domicile?

One day, plus or minus one day.

:)Not that bad really. Commuting is hard to/from anywhere at any airline, but SWA ATL—>BWI or ATL—>HOU is very doable. One side of most trips are easily commuted on one end, and a few trips are commutable both ends. The good thing at SW is you only have to try one flight on company to comply with the commuting policy, and there is good frequency on SW and DAL out of ATL.

Commuting base to base is about as easy as it gets. Now that the former AirTran guys can all hold ATL you will have very little competition. Two years ago it was a much different story.

Thanks for the info!

Easy, I do ATL to BWI, new hire...at least 6-7 nonstop flights there on DAL or SWA...just a little planning and usually one hotel night or crashpad night a week. So, it looks like for me (2017) new hire, it will be another 18-24 months away to hold reserve in ATL. Good news, because we were about to move away, but living 34 miles from ATL makes it easy.

Looks like ATL went to Feb 2017 on the latest vacancy. #sellinghope

Probably gonna go even more junior as the time goes on...

SWA ATL Base
 

It is headed in the same direction that Orlando took about a year ago and Phoenix took a long time ago. It will have a big bubble of very senior people for the next 15 years or so with a growing population of junior and mid seniority folks. It will never be a big commuter base as long as I work here because nobody commutes to a base where they can’t have some kind of seniority power when there are other bases like BWI and MDW with a more normal seniority curve.
I think as long as we keep growing it, new hires will be holding it fairly soon.

When I first got hired around 4 years ago, I was told I would never hold Atlanta or maybe in 10 years. Same with Orlando.
Goes to show you how quick things change.

...and I was about to move.....in ATL, commute to BWI..... from what I can tell - ATL doesn't have good trips like HOU or BWI. But driving to work in the near future (less than 6 months would be great).

It went from 7yrs when I was hired, 4 years, 13 months, now 6 months away at this rate it could be less.

How junior/senior is MCO now? And do you guys have long call reserve? Thanks!

No long call and MCO is one of the senior bases, but a NH can get it within a few months.

Thanks for the info!

Vacancy that just closed yesterday has the most junior ATL FO as a May 2017 hire.

How is MCO a senior base if you can hold it in a few months, yet ATL (also senior) takes 1yr to hold?

I will be looking to live ~40 mins out of MCO for my spouse's career.

Thanks

Top heavy and very few commuters. Junior people either rotate out for better schedules elsewhere or become that top-heavy component as they get more flying out of that base.

Just to give you an idea, as a 3rd year FO, in ATL, I'm barely into the blank line territory while in MCO, I'm a solid line holder but probably at least partial weekend line, but if I really want the max horsepower for my date-of-hire, it's either HOU, BWI or OAK.

This........

Domicile seniority is not linear like the global list is.

MCO has some very senior folks at the top of both lists, and they don't move, especially on the Capt side.

The bottom is more fluid, and those dwelling there are subject to frequent displacement as the base shrinks and grows, although, thankfully, that's been minimized somewhat in the last few years.

The problem, like RJS said, is that in a senior domicile like MCO, it'll take years longer before you have any seniority "horsepower" vs. other domiciles.

You'll be stuck on reserve much longer, working crummy weekend lines much longer, getting less desirable vacations for much longer, it'll take years longer to upgrade unless you commute etc. LOTS of FO's in MCO have been bypassing upgrade for years, to avoid commuting or moving to a more junior domicile, which locks up the top of list.

On the Capt side you have almost as many senior folks bidding in to pre position for retirement, as there are actual retirements. We also have a few that do the snowbird thing, and bid into MCO for the winter months, which stagnates the list as well, even up in the sub 100 range.

I've been here over 22 years, and the only place I'd be more junior than MCO is PHX. I'd lose over 10% going there. Conversely, I'd gain over 10% going to ATL. DAL would be about the same as MCO for me. All the others would be net me 5-8% seniority gain.

Other than ATL, a newby can hold pretty much any base they want in a few months. The problem comes later on when they don't move up the list at all. Having a cushion beneath you is good, but when it comes to domicile QOL, it's the number of pilots above you that is important.

Seniority lists
 

Does anyone have access to the latest bid awards for SWA/ or seniority list? TIA

For what? Every SWA pilot does.

How many APC accounts do you have?

Latest vacancy, Aug 2017 hire. The times they are a-changin'

Oh man, look at all the vacation burglars that bid our of ATL this bid. Hope they can get back in next month...

SWA ATL Base
 

ATL plug is a Nov 2017 hire now... oh, the irony.

How come when you type vacation burglar this is what I picture?

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b73368c9ac.jpg


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Pretty much but I imagine that tray has 407 (409?) hamburgers on it. :p

I agree it sucks. But to think these idiots will give up 20K minimum to be seat locked for the next 4 months to get that vacation is pretty amazing. I think I'll find a better way.

The contract is, what the contract is, but this should be changed to 12 months seat lock next contract. It is flat out thievery. Or burglary. Or buggery...

Or, instead of more self imposed restrictions, we just separate FO & CA vacation weeks. FO vacation weeks are used for FOs & CA vacation weeks are used for CAs.

LOL. Like that's not another self imposed restriction. If you were bidding your last year of FO vacation you wouldn't think so.