I believe the OP is already ORD based at Spirit. So he’s in Chicago already.

 

Hope you get a call soon. As long as your app is tight it won’t be long.

 

I agree. Don’t get me wrong, we have a ton of room to improve and nearly all fronts, but this is a good move in my opinion.

 

What do you think is holding them back?

Any check airman/chief/instructor experience? Community involvement?

Anyone ever professionally review your apps?

 

I actually just paid for a company to review it. Waiting to get everything back. I’ve always been a commuter so couldn’t really do any mgmt stuff and right before I was going to apply to LCA Covid hit and then I left for SPA soon as the hiring started back up. I’ve done volunteer stuff in my younger days but my free time is all for the little ones at home now.

 

LOL whoops, barely announced and I already had F9<->NK mixed up; thought he was on the half of that shotgun wedding that closed ORD. In that case, I would 100% stay at NK.

 

United Airlines?

 

My question to the OP. Do you want to be a captain?

Do some math. At Frontier/Spirit, how many aircraft are coming and where do you fit in the grand scheme of things? You can reasonably calculate where you will fall within a few years based on aircraft retirement schedule, scheduled aircraft deliveries and mandatory retirements. Do that for both airlines.

At Southwest, in order to upgrade to captain, you will need to be at 60% on the system seniority. Given our airline "maturity", meaning we aren't growing exponentially, this will simply take an upward of a decade due to sheer numbers. As of right now, we are at 9,149 pilots on our system seniority. Currently a junior lance captain can't hold a captain bid, but has been on property just over 10 years. He is sitting right at 63% or around 5,760 . He still has over 400 FO's systemwide between him and the plug captain seat. Basically a lance captain is trained in both seats, bids as an FO, can pick up captain trips from OT or from other captains giving away their flying and get paid as a captain for those. You can stay a lance for up to a year with current hiring before you'll either fully upgrade to captain, or you will go back to full time FO.

We have just under 1,000 pilots reaching Age 65 in the next 5 years. That current lance has almost 3,500 pilots below him. With retirement numbers in mind, how many aircraft would have to be additions to our fleet vs. replacements in order for you to upgrade?

Now... it's true that we can put up some good numbers even as FO's. Pretty much since getting on the property, I've learned to play the game to maximize my income and I've been at it since literally the very first trip off of my IOE. So while you can make a killing, it does come at the expense of your quality of life because you will work for it.

Interestingly, my DOH holds captain literally everywhere else, including legacies, cargo and ULCC's. At Southwest, I won't have to worry about it for a few more years.

Bottom line, if you want to be a captain, this is not the airline for you.

 

OP, I don’t think you’re giving enough weight to your comfort at work for the next few decades barring any new fleet types showing up.

The 737 is loud and cramped and the seat doesn’t recline much. While I like the way it’s built and flies, after 16 years on it, I’m craving the Airbus cockpit.

 

Yep. Sitting here at home listening to the never-ending high-pitched hiss of my tinnitus. Gets old.

And the 73 is very uncomfortable. And antiquated.