Commuting on SWA
 

Hi! I was wondering if commuting was more difficult on SWA than other airlines because of the AM/PM construct.

To me it would seem that for an AM shift you would have to stay in a hotel the night before, and for a PM trip you’d have to stay in a hotel at the end of your trip if you got in too late to commute back home.
Is there any truth to this, or are there plenty of commutable trips?

Been my experience that you are correct. There are a few commuter friendly lines, but the construct is not greatly conducive to commuting on both ends of a trip. It does exist, but I’ve seen those trips go pretty senior if you commute to a ‘commuter base’ (OAK/LAS).

That has been my experience too, furthermore there is no contractual requirement to build any commutable LINES. So while there are a handful of commutable PM TRIPS, finding an entire LINE of them would be a unicorn.

I’ve always been surprised that in a pilot group that large there isn’t a huge groundswell of support for commutable lines. According to SWAPA about 46% of the pilots commute.


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Good to know! Thank you!

To that end... we hope to have this issue addressed in our next contract. No guarantee tho.

It would be if the stupid 80+% would vote no.

Are you aware of the fatuity assuming that the vast majority view is incorrect? I voted NO for TA 1 because the retirement contribution was insulting. I voted YES for TA2 because, at the time an improvement to retirement was my line in the sand. I’m tired of being told I was wrong by a tiny minority.


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Dare we dream? ;)

We?

"I" wish "Creating Commutable Lines" was a win win issue--but it's not. Making them will greatly affect the other lines -- or we'd already have them. From my peanut gallery, creating commutable lines lowers the productivity of the average pairing. Comparing our trips to OALs, I'd note that commuters have to spend a night in base before/after a trip--but also get the same amount of work done in a 3 day as OALs do in a 4 day trip. The big difference is that SWA commuters have pick up the tab for the stay the night before/after while OALs spend it on the road.

Hence, you won't get any support from me to build more commutable lines--and I'll even strongly oppose it. My personal vote determined by the win/lose issue: Every line built for a commuter reduces the number of quality lines for those who live in base. There are enough commuters who enjoy working less days (productive trips) that they don't favor creating more lines that are commutable but less productive either.

I disagree. I think that productive commutable trips can be constructed but they will be PM turn AM trips with short overnights.

The other option for commutable pairings are red eye trips - provided the redeye leg isn’t inserted into a regular trip. But pure redeye trips, although unpopular, are commutable on both ends.


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