It’s in the newest Reporting Point on page 14. The company changed it on their own. And it doesn’t seem to say anything about being prorated.

Profit sharing is not currently contractual.

Word to the new hires (and everyone): for your own sake, for the sake of your families, and for the sake of everyone in the pilot group, please do not vote yes unless a TA includes:

1) Pay raises of 50%+ (that simply brings us not quite up to year 2000 UAL 737 CA pay rates adjusted for inflation). It doesn’t account for our long upgrade nor our lack of wide body pay rates. Personally, I’m not voting yes for anything with less than a 75% increase in rates to account for those factors.
2) Complete overhaul of our disability and loss of license plans. They are industry-bottom and need to be brought up to industry-leading.
3) 25% B-Fund contribution. Contractually mandated profit-sharing.
4) Full retro with retirement contributions and profit sharing incorporated and interest penalty applied.

Those are just the big items. There are many more.

Just read it. That’s certainly good to hear. I was looking through the PS plan policy and that hadn’t been updated yet so I’d assumed it was a ongoing negotiation. Now if they’d agree to the CBA as easily….

The company changed it.

Qualifying into one's first year of PS is similar to qualifying for your last year when retiring. They probably got sued.

Or realized the savings they get from hosing everyone hired after Jan 1 wasn't worth people quitting/applying elsewhere. When other airlines are offering hiring and retention bonuses, and all you've got is profit sharing....it's a easy change. Or they got sued....

Can someone explain how TFP works?

Works the same as dollars per hour. As long as you don't try to convert it to dollars per hour you don't really worry about it. Make as many TFPs as you can for as little work as possible, then do the same next month.

When the union produces contract comparisons during negotiations they'll do the arithmetic and show you the conversion and how it compares to other airlines. It's kind of goofy but since it is based upon mileage, there actually are some benefits to TFP as leg lengths increase.

Good luck with this..The Trip for Pay (TFP) is the basic unit of pay for Pilots at SWA. The TFP concept originated with the SWA work rules in effect prior to our first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in 1978. Under SWA’s initial 1971 work rules, one Trip was paid for each takeoff and landing, regardless of the flight time involved. In our first CBA in 1978, the trip concept was expanded to pay an additional trip for overflying the destination or diverting.

Under our 1979 CBA, a mileage of 290 statute miles was established for the limit of a Standard TFP; beyond that limit you gained an additional 0.1 TFP for each 50 additional statute miles for a Non-Standard TFP. In 1983, the Non-Standard trip formula was improved to provide a 0.1 TFP for each additional 40 miles. In the 1985 CBA, the Standard TFP was redefined as any leg with a mileage of 243 miles or less. Finally, in the 1989 CBA, Over- Schedule language was added to account for flights scheduled with block greater than the standard mileage calculation.

There are three different components that go into determining TFP for a flight: The Standard TFP, the Non-Standard TFP, and Over-Schedule. The airport-to-airport mileage goes into determining the Standard TFP and the Non-Standard TFP calculation and the Over-Schedule calculation is determined by scheduled block. Ultimately, the leg will pay the higher of these calculations.

Standard TFP: The first unit of measure is a Standard TFP, which is defined in Section 4.F. of the CBA as

‘...any trip for which the nonstop mileage according to the CAB book of airport-to-airport mileage is two hundred forty-three (243) miles or less.’

For example, when we operate Lihue to Honolulu which has a distance 102 sm, the pay would be 1 TFP, since it is less than 243 sm.


A standard trip is anything less than 243 miles for which we are paid 1 TFP or Over-Schedule if it exceeds 55 minutes of block. Anything greater than 243 statute miles is paid the greater of the Non-Standard trip calculation based on mileage, or the Over- Schedule calculation based on block time.

This system has several intrinsic advantages over a purely block hour pay rate. First, the short legs that SWA is historically known for all pay at least 1 TFP regardless of the length of the leg. This premium of TFP over block is significant on a short leg like DAL to HOU. Second, the longer the stage length, the better the equivalent hourly pay rate.

I'm a dollar/hr guy. Not from SWA but acquired. Flew 40hrs/mo. Gross 190K. About $395/hr. Very little premium. worked 108 days. F/O. Not upgrading. Use my free time to generate about the same income, but pay little tax.