I admit this is anecdotal, but true. Make of it whatever you will:

- I was at DAL for a SWA interview yesterday. After completing the final session, I joined a couple of other candidates at the curb for the shuttle back to the airport. One of them was an extroverted nice young lady GIV pilot. (I am an old codger...)
- They had been waiting longer than anticipated and were wondering if we were in the right place;
- a man and woman approached us on the sidewalk on their way into the building, him carrying a suit garment bag. Our gregariously professional young lady asked them, "Excuse me, do you work here?" He said simply, "Yes," and she asked them if we were in the right place to catch the shuttle.
- He thought we were on the wrong side of the building (we weren't, actually), but should be on the other side (LEAD?), which is quite a hike, especially if you don't have an escort to get back through the building and have to walk around the outside. So the woman very nicely and immediately insisted on packing the three of us into her personal vehicle and driving us around. She told her companion ("Bob") that she would catch up with him after she dropped us off.
- As we left the parking lot, she insisted on just taking us on around to the airport terminal instead. (Even though on our way out the shuttle bus we had been waiting on passed us in the opposite direction.)
- On the way, after asking us about our day at SWA, she very nicely let us know that we had just briefly met the CEO (on his way to head out to an awards event in downtown Dallas: ergo the suit), and that she is his Executive Assistant.

Of course those on property know a lot more about the company than I do. Just sharing.

 

The real CEO is Gary Kelly, NoSho BoJo is just the puppet.

And BoJo doesn’t know how to take the airport shuttle because he has a black car service to DFW where he flys on AA.

 

Nice story but is it to the point now where applicants don't even have to know what the CEO of the airline they're applying to looks like?

 

Can you please tell us how many years you have left in the 121 world before mandatory retirement? Also, have you scratched the big jet/far international itch yet in the military? How do you feel about doing up and down flying in a cramped and loud cockpit for the rest of your career?

 

With all due respect…you need to have your head examined if you’re considering SWA over DAL. Like seriously..

 

This ^^^ EXACTLY.

 

the common belief that AA is "in bad shape financially" etc etc and "pending bankruptcy" is old news. They have done a good job at cleaning things up and paying back debt.

mid-2023, AA is in no "worse shape financially" that any other Big-3 airline much less any other SP 500 company that uses debt to expand and grow. Spend money to make money.

 

Retired mil here, been at SWA 6 years, got a CJO at United and planning to start class with them in July. I live in domicile for both so that wasn’t a factor. Even giving up 6 yrs seniority, the earnings over the rest of my career (18 yrs) are pretty similar at both places (depending on fleet, upgrade, etc).

ALL companies have their issues. In fact, you will find detractors, on this forum and others, for every single company. Every airline takes its turn in the contract negotiation grinder. Every airline ends up getting dragged through the PR dumpster periodically. Every airline treats their union labor as cost units. Every airline has lost their “culture.”

IMO, SWA is not that bad to work for, but it’s also not that great. (Btw I voted yes on the SAV…) The pay is decent, and I expect it’ll be markedly better with the new contract. It didn’t take long to get a line with a schedule that worked great for me. Days off per month is pretty good. Schedule flexibility “can be” pretty good, with caveats. If you want to earn extra money, it “can be” doable, with caveats. But when you come to work, you will work hard, you will earn your dollars. If on reserve, you will get used. And you get the privilege of paying for your parking, uniforms, medicals, meals, etc. Fingers crossed you don’t go out on LTD. Oh, and set zeros, just because.

So why am I leaving? Well the Flightmare Before (and During and After) Christmas really illustrated for me what a house of cards our IT systems are. After seeing that debacle first-hand, it’s frankly frightening to imagine what might happen next. But as bad as that was, I had already considered leaving. It really hit me when sitting in my crappy hotel in Bumble****** TX, after my 2nd 12 hr duty day and 11 hr overnight, when I realized that I didn’t want to spend the next 18 years flying 737s to TX and FL for a big regional. There are better options (at least for me).

 

Exactly. It’s 17 years in for the 737 grind for me now. Granted the last carrier had longer legs and better flying but the same cramped, loud and uncomfortable cockpit. To think that I have 16 more to go of this makes me want to jump off a cliff.

Just this last trip I found myself saying internally….WTF?! I was picking up the ATIS for the destination before we even transitioned to STD at 18,000’. Not my cup of tea!

The conundrum is that you won’t realize what a demoralizing grind SWA flying is until you are too far in and have the Golden Handcuffs starting to take hold.

Seriously, if you have a chance to go to a Legacy over here and chose SWA, you have **** poor decision making skills.

 

a lot of people don’t want the crappy bases delta has to offer. Why would I subject myself to commuting for life when I can live in base at swa? Also, flying to the same European or Asian city 6 time zones away gets old too. Something something green grass.

and I believe delta flies a 757 from Jacksonville to Atlanta. Ymmv