saab2000

Pilots will be easy to hire. And if they need to tighten the belt they can just offer another round of ExTO, VSP or continue to offer ETO, which appears to be quite popular as well. Hopefully for all, it won't come to furloughs.

I think the company has been very creative and these offers appear to be quite generous. I was furloughed from my first job in Europe in 2003. If that company had been as creative as Southwest I would still be working there.

Lewbronski

I’m normally one to bag on the company, but the ExTO seems like a pretty good deal. Of course, I’d like it to be more, but in the context of corporate America and the corporatocracy we all drone on under, this represents a nice, pretty much unheard-of opportunity.

i plan on taking the five-year deal. I’m going to hang around family and friends and work on my side business and travel and enjoy being my own boss. If my side business blossoms into something bigger while I’m out, maybe I won’t come back.

What’s that thing people never say on their death beds, “I wish I’d spent more time working”?

Smooth at FL450

Nice. Enjoy your time away, hope it works out for you. We'll do our best to keep the lights on if/when you want to come back.

SlipKid

Nice! This really is a great opportunity that I doubt will happen anytime again soon. I am pleasantly surprised that the company stepped up like it did, and came out with some great programs. I believe that a lot of folks are gonna participate, and that we'll avoid any furloughs.

I'd be right there with you, but we're starting a major $ renovation and I want it all paid off before I retire in 10 years.

Opakapaka

Without a doubt SWA has offered the best deal. Talking with buddy’s at the other airlines we really have a great opportunity that will probably never be offered again. Time with my family, especially grand kids is precious and getting $$$ from WN without working is the icing on the cake.

ZapBrannigan

Funny thing is, I'm hearing anecdotally that the numbers are much lower than they were expecting. And the constant flow of reminders from Bob and GK about VSP leads me to believe it's probably true.

So do you think people are waiting until the last minute to sign up? And if so, why?


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flensr

During my hiring process I got the distinct impression that the company aggressively screens for people who like to fly a lot. I haven't had any reason to change that conclusion since I've been here. As an aggregate, it "feels" like the predominant attitude in our pilot group is that flying is great, more flying is more great. Anything that takes away flying, even free money to go home and not fly, is not so great. When you institutionally select employees who really want to come to work significantly more than the minimum required, there's going to be a lot of inertia and resistance to backing off even for those of us who may have already met every single financial goal they'll ever have and who might be "happier" not working. We got where we are as a company on the basis of working just a bit more than necessary, because the payoff is substantial both personally and for the company. Tough sell to tell those same people it's ok to hang it up early and go home before they really have to.

flyguy81

Heard from 4 people this week that they’re retiring early....

Cysco4120

I would say most people that are taking the VSP or ExTo are not signing up until the last week. No reason to sign up early. After 7 days you are locked in on the VSP so most guys are just making sure they have all the best info before they make it official. 206 signed up for VSP the first week and very few since. Wouldn’t be surprised if at least 500 sign up for VSP in the final week.

Same for ExTO. I am signing up for 5 years but won’t do it until the end of this week. Main reason is just to decide on how I wanted to bid. I don’t expect anyone to be out longer than a year or two and I plan to come back earlier when we start upgrading whenever that might be. Decided to bid 5 years since those will be awarded first. Didn’t want to take a chance on not getting awarded an ExTo. To good of a deal to pass up for my particular situation.

WHACKMASTER

There’s definitely going to be a flood of applicants the last week. With only having seven days to rescind your bid, why would you put it in early?