Yes, We work for different companies. No way you work at SWA and have 9 hour days nor have gone over 11 duty day . You are a mgt troll and should be ashamed posting lies .

 

I’m just a regular line pilot dude. Currently on a 4 day trip. My duty days are 10, 9.8, 7.1, and 4.2.

 

No, it is not that bad. In fact, I would argue that it is a great place to work. And that is coming from a guy who had a great corporate gig.

I am a hardcore AMer and am starting to think that many on this forum must be PMers. I do think there is a difference there. PM seems subject to more delays and reroutes. I have been here 7 years and have only been JAd maybe 4 times.

If you really want to know how life here is - this is not the place to ask.

 

This is the scariest thing on this thread. If management at headquarters can't even see that there's a problem, there will never be a any effort put towards a solution.

 

So what you’re saying is you were “SAV NO”.

 

IMO the director and VPs need to get down into the trenches with the front line, but they don’t. They stay in their offices across the street and come out for their once a quarter meeting and the Halloween parties.

 

I think this is the perfect place to ask about work life balance and quality of life.

Fyi- We aren't on here complaining, we are ****ed off that our once great company has turned into such a dumpster fire.

I think our Strike Authorization Vote speaks for its self concerning our work life balance and quality of life on the road: 98% of our pilots voted 99.16% in favor of a Strike Authorization should tell everyone reading this how messed up Southwest has become.

Only 4 JA's for you in 7 years, Thats great, you're also flying Am's and working week days I presume? No 1221 warn notice for you either. You probably didn't even have to work over Christmas? I worked Christmas and had a Double JA. At SWA most of the JA's and JA RONs occur on weekends and hit the more junior pilots, the ones reading this thread trying to make an informed decision if this is where they want to work for the next +30 years.

And this is also coming from a guy who had a great corporate gig.

 

Different perspective: I've had many duty days longer than 11 hours. Most of my duty days are over 10 hours. Most of my overnights are sub-14 hours.

Four legs in a day is very common. Five legs is not terribly uncommon. I see six leg days on occasion. And I have personally flown seven legs in a day at SWA.

Anecdotally, while Champeen may have made more than his AA buddy in his first year at SWA, if an AA pilot and a SWA pilot fly the equivalent number of credit hours during their first year, the AA pilot would make slightly more than the SWA pilot. A SWA pilot would typically answer that by saying something like, "Because we have so much more flexibility at SWA, we can earn more credit hours (work more) than pilots at other airlines." There is an entire rabbit hole of discussion that can ensue from statements like that. I'll spare you, but my experience has been it boils down to: you have to work significantly more at SWA to significantly out-earn OAL pilots. Some people love that about SWA. If that's your "jam" - working more for the next X decades or embracing the suck - then you'll probably love it here.

So, that's the first year. Over the course of the first ten years, though, at current rates, using SWAPA's published earliest available upgrade for AA (three years to a NB) advertised a few months ago on their "Considering a Career at Southwest Airlines?" graphic and SWA's earliest upgrade (not lance) at seven years, the AA pilot will out-earn the SWA pilot by $412K flying an equivalent number of credit hours. I don't know how long it takes to hold WB captain at AA, but that would also pretty dramatically impact career earnings once an AA pilot makes that leap.

And something to consider is what Hoover said:
Don't know how old Champeen is, but that's definitely something to think about. The trips are a grind for many. They have gotten more and more difficult since I arrived here (approximately 20 years ago). Part of that is due to the interaction of the effects of FAR 117 (allows longer block times) combined with the 800-sized aircraft becoming a larger and larger proportion of our fleet (longer boarding/deplaning leading to longer duty days and shorter overnights). Part of it is due to the increased emphasis on the "financialization" (for lack of a better term) of our airline. And part of it is due to getting older.

For the first many years I was at SWA, back when we had longer overnights, I used to be able to go out and drink and party much of the night, get a few hours of sleep, and then go fly what was then a full day (like nine hours or so). No way on Earth can I do that anymore. Age, longer days, and shorter overnights have made it so that I haven't been able to do anything like that for eight or nine years.

Champeen may be in his 20's or 30's. Champeen may have superior genetics. I don't know. But for me, and many folks I've talked to, the trips have become significantly harder to deal with over the years. After a decade or two, they can become a real chore.

Champeen says certain people here on APC are "toxic." Okay. I suppose the pilots who founded ALPA because of the unacceptable working conditions back in the 30's may have also been perceived as "toxic" by some people. I suppose the pilots who have led the fights for and secured better pay and work rules over the decades were thought of as "toxic" by some. That's just the way it goes.

"Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or nation." -Oscar Wilde

 

Im an only PMer and don’t subscribe to the complainers. Honestly rarely get in after 2300 and only been JAd 3 times but never flew any of them. Lots and lots of things to fix at this place but management doesn’t care nor do they care about the employees or their thoughts on anything. As long as the institutionals are happy they will continue on as planned.

Most of the systemic issues have been discussed already. Management doesn’t care to spend the money to fix them. Luckily I could care less if they fix anything. I make more every time they screw up and I’m only a phone call away from going home at any time. You work longer days than competitors but get more days off.

As long as your identity is not wrapped up in what you do and where you work, it’s doable. If you have an airplane picture up in your house and a model on your desk, you most likely will not enjoy the experience here.

Long term survival is assured. I can almost guarantee that because the American public has not punished the airline for its Xmas meltdown. If they don’t get punished from that they know they have the hook set on the chumps.

 

Lew, if your schedule is like you say it is, then I don't know what to tell you except you're probably doing this to yourself and your schedule is the result of your own poor bidding practices or choices.

Conversely, my schedule next month - most of my trips are one leg per day... on the last day, I do 2. My longest duty day is 8:05. Granted, I do ETOPS. Even when I flew mostly domestic, anything on my board that was anywhere remotely close to 11 hours of scheduled duty time would be ELITTed out in a NY second and replaced with something that doesn't work nearly as hard. You have the tools. It's your choice not to use them.