Airline Pilot Central Forums - New hire question

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New hire question

Quote:

Originally Posted by tallpilot (Post 3458665)

No. It's right at the historical average.

Historical average for when?

There's a hiring boom going on. People are bailing for greener (for them) pastures.

Hey all. Aside immediate family, what do SWA’s travel bennies look like?
Companion, enrolled friend, buddy pass allotment?

Thanks in advance!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheFly (Post 3458683)

Hey all. Aside immediate family, what do SWA’s travel bennies look like?
Companion, enrolled friend, buddy pass allotment?

Thanks in advance!

Unmarried employees can register a companion once per year. You can elect two buddy passes per quarter or 12,000 rapid rewards points. There are other ways to accrue RR points which provides a way to get positive space travel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheFly;[url=tel:3458683

3458683[/url]]Hey all. Aside immediate family, what do SWA’s travel bennies look like?
Companion, enrolled friend, buddy pass allotment?

Thanks in advance!

they’re doing an opt in to rapid rewards points (12,500 a quarter? 50,000 a year. Or 8 (?) one way buddy passes per year. Or nothing. You pay taxes on both options I believe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by usernamehere (Post 3458691)

they’re doing an opt in to rapid rewards points (12,500 a quarter? 50,000 a year. Or 8 (?) one way buddy passes per year. Or nothing. You pay taxes on both options I believe.

It's 8 round trip passes and everything else is correct.

So does immediate family get non-rev benefits in addition to the passes?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

Originally Posted by MooseAg03 (Post 3458740)

So does immediate family get non-rev benefits in addition to the passes?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Parents are eligible as well, including other airlines. Registered eligible travelers do not use buddy passes. You give those out to people you don’t like.

New hire question

Just to summarize, for travel benefits, you get:

Unlimited travel on SWA for you, your spouse or travel companion, your kids under 19 (unless they are in school full time up to 23yo), and both of your parents.

After 6 months, all of those people can also purchase id90 tickets on all airlines in their travel program, which are most big airlines with a few glaring exceptions. You can only list for economy seats because reasons.

You also sign up for the "travel rewards" program, where you can elect quarterly to get 2 round trip (4 one way segment) buddy passes or 12,500 (roughly $150) or nothing if you don't want to pay the taxes on the imputed income.

As pilots, you get reciprocal jumpseat privileges on pretty much every domestic airline from day 1.

Great benefits. The pass bureau is among the most powerful, annoyingly difficult to deal with, and bulletproof fiefdoms in the SW empire. Beware when dealing with them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tessie (Post 3458034)

A few questions from someone with an upcoming interview:

1. Does "Nuts!" at all resonate with the culture/people anymore? I keep hearing that it is entirely different and even a pessimistic descriptor being SWA as a bigger regional.

2. Does it really take 18 years to accrue the full 5 weeks of vacation? I get that 1 week can turn into 3 weeks if you bid correctly, so it's not a negative.

3. How quickly could a newhire vote or have an influence on the union? Filing for mediation seems past due, but I am completely out of the loop.

4. How routinely could you drop/trade away trips? Is there much difficulty dropping something if you want two or three weeks off to spend at home?

I currently fly the yellow busses and love everything about the company and people and schedule flexibility. If I feel like dropping my entire month, that can be done instantly.

I’m not at all a “tournament level player” (as they say), but it’s very difficult to be able to get rid of single trips, especially an entire month. I’m very senior and have never been able to entirely clear my monthly board by ELITT or TTGA. Maybe some of the cartel people can do it. But I don’t know how.

All I’ve been able to do is occasionally drop a trip by trading or giveaway to another pilot or get a 3-day turned into a 2-day by ELITT. But never, ever have I been able to clear an entire month. Not easy.