we have a lack of airplane problem. They are trying to squeeze juice from a turd so added red-eyes. Those planes have to come from somewhere. Instead of overnighting in a base, they’re flying to the east coast. Nobody has an issue with that. What people are ****ed about is that because the RON plane is working instead of resting, they think they need to shrink the base where the plane was overnighting.

There’s prob a dozen things they could’ve done before kicking people out of their base to do a multiple time zone commute…but they don’t care.

Hiring, more airframes, red eye reserve might help fix things…they should also make redeye pairings more efficient than a 2 leg 3 day that doesn’t beat the rig.

Someone told me they heard a rumor the company wants several more bases in high hotel cost cities….floating a Frontier/Allegiant model with mostly day trips. Hope it’s BS, because people would lose their ****.

 

The way SW builds redeye pairings is highly inefficient and not industry standard at all. That being said, they are great from a pilots perspective. I flew one a few weeks ago, and I get the appeal. For someone in a single/empty nest or older kids type of situation, they are amazing. Go home, sleep it off, party all night, rinse and repeat. I don't want them to change, and if they do, they are going to get put on junior pilots and there is going to be a lot of fatigue.

Network planning is throwing stuff against a wall and seeing if it sticks. SWA is PTP until they aren't PTP. It's a hybrid mess right now. The way they move bodies around the system hasn't changed, just the number and frequency. They used to move 10 pilots to MCO every winter and reverse it in spring and there would be grumbling. I have never seen the way they just gutted the west coast to build up the east coast all while reducing ATL. It was truly insane. The company simply doesn't care. They are following the CBA and won't change until it hurts them or until they are forced to.

 

Agreed. The ROR language, as written right now, is pretty worthless. We need something like, "100% of all vacancy awards in a domicile will be awarded to ROR-eligible pilots, who were displaced from that domicile, prior to processing other vacancy awards."

Does that subvert seniority? Yes. But so does the open time cap, the out-of-domicile bid priority, and many other things in our CBA. Everything is a trade-off and a negotiation. I guess we'll put it on the wish list for the next contract..

 

The company loves when you talk like that.

 

So only pilot’s who meet your moral criteria for their vacancy bid should be awarded it?


You are playing into the company’s hands by pitting pilot vs pilot.


The displacements were caused by company incompetence….. therefore the company should pay the price for DHs, hotels, whatever it takes.



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Company managers (and especially company negotiators) love it when pilots attack fellow pilots.

The displacements were caused by company incompetence….. therefore the company should pay the price for DHs, hotels, whatever it takes.

Don’t let the fact that the company screwed this up, and is causing pain for many of our pilots, convince you to restrict fellow pilots.



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Clearly my meaning wasn't clear here. This wasn't the pilots' doing. Irritated as I am with my involuntary commute, I don't at all fault the guys who are bidding into my home airport while I'm displaced. I blame the contract language that allows it, and we need to fix it next cycle. That's all.

Much like reroutes are greatly curtailed when they became too expensive in this new CBA, displacements need to be the same. It shouldn't be a cheap option at all for the company.

 

Company should pay the price. They’re the ones rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic with zero regard to how it screws with our lives.

And yeah, displaced people should be the first ones back in a base. If you’ve got multiple homes and want to bounce around the country, that’s a choice you make…you don’t get to do it on the backs of people whose lives are miserable because they’re displaced involuntarily. Just like you don’t get to bypass upgrade and then kick someone jr out of that seat when you feel like moving up.

We have lots of things that “violate” seniority…VA block bidding/trading, SNOT/VDT awards, open time cap, etc. Jist cuz you’ve been here longer doesn’t give you the right to take a dump on people below you because you’ve “earned it”.

 

I know being displaced sucks….. but your fellow pilots nor the new contract created this pain.

The company did.

You are feeling the pain because the company stopped hiring, shuffled people all over like deck chairs on the titanic, AND THEN set the vacancies to zero.

If the vacancy had a positive number, your DRR would win over other pilots trying to bid into your home domicile no matter how senior they are.

You actually would get 100% of those positive numbers thanks to the improvements in this contract, the old one was only 50%.

Your fellow pilots had ZERO to do with causing this pain and seeking to restrict them is an error.




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Your fellow pilots are not taking a dump on you…… the company is.

But the company negotiators love it when they trick pilots into blaming other pilots….. too bad you fell for it hook line and sinker.



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