Southwest vs Spirit/Frontier
 

So I’m a prior fighter guy looking to live in Vegas. Got apps in at Spirit/Frontier and will be applying to SWA this upcoming window. All 3 places would allow me to be home based. Overall, it seems like the 3 companies have pretty good pilot morale. Spirit/Frontier should have quick upgrades while SWA has better pay and profit share. 401k DC will soon be the same I believe.

Quick, back of the napkin math makes it seem like career pay and contribution should be relatively close with an edge to SWA. Year 1 would be a lot more comfortable at Southwest too. Curious to see what others think about comparing these 3 airlines.

While there are many factors at play here I guess my question would be which one of those could buy the other one(s) ? I would much rather be at the airline that does the acquiring then be the airline that gets acquired. Even asking the question makes me lean towards SWA but I am definitely biased.

Whatever you decide to do - good luck!

Oh - and now that I think about it - I guess even more important is which airline do you get hired by? I would go with that one. If you have multiple job offers - that could be another thread but start with the one that offers the class date first and go from there.

I vote for SWA. Much better place in general, and know guys there 20+ years, never left out on a limb by Mgt, SWAPA is pretty great in how they vigorously defend their members. Remember years ago even the FO who accidentally transmitted on ground about the lack of date able FAs kept his gig.
just my .02

Haha, I didn’t hear about that! Great points brought up. And to the previous poster you’re right, gotta get the call first before I even have a decision to make.

[QUOTE=CommuterForLife;2978942]While there are many factors at play here I guess my question would be which one of those could buy the other one(s) ?

Ask Doug Parker. Lol

[QUOTE=SuperDec95;2979005]
and indeed MIGHT DO JUST THAT if Boeing can’t get the MAX flying pretty soon.

Spirit has 68 Million Shares of outstanding stock, so it is not some super mega Dow Jones Index company. Delta, by comparison, has 646 M shares of outstanding stock.

So it may be easily buy-able by a bigger animal in the jungle who wants another model of airliner, shares an ULCC/LCC mindset, does not serve hot meals on board, has no airport lounges, and has routes not flown by the larger buyer. Spirit apparently has "turned the corner" on their mid 2000's reputation, recently winning a variety of value airline of the year awards/etc. and outranking UAL, AAL, JetBlue in satisfaction surveys. Pilots seem happy, with decent pay. Not Delta 787 Captain pay, but apples and oranges. "Culture" seems fun and jovial at Spirit if you follow their social media.

Never say never....

(opinion)

As others have said, I'd go with the company that has the cash on hand to buy both of the others, and has a better reason now than ever to be seriously considering such a purchase. Which side of that transaction would you want to be on?

The reality is go with the one that calls you, and hope that one is swa. I’m at NK but would have rather gone to swa, it’s not terrible here but it’s not swa either. I’m very impressed by SWAPA compared to our union.


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One thing I noticed going through the salary thread is that it seems like Southwest pilots make much more than the hourly rate x 1000 each year. Is this due to Trips for Pay or something else?