Originally Posted by Fly90

Telling ya..at least get an app out to United. Sounds like you’d be a lot happier.

Originally Posted by e6bpilot

Holy hyperbole. I am not diminishing the very real situation to each individual displaced and commuting from a base, but come on…

We are getting ready to enter a period of sustained hiring and upgrades that is going to add a significant number of pilots to the seniority list. Those of us who have been here during previous periods of stagnation know that seniority progression (and all it entails like holding the seat you want) is not a straight line. Here recently, it has gotten a lot more jagged, but by this time next year, all will be right in the world barring some sort of major calamity.

A junior west coast captain bailing? No effing way. Why anyone with more than a year or two would leave here to get on the back side of the hiring boom somewhere else is truly beyond me. I get it, it’s APC and we are all going to burn this place to the ground, but let’s be real. Someone with greater than 2 years here would have to have a very compelling reason to leave.

Originally Posted by flyguy81

we’ve added 500 pilots in 2 years. Most jr in the 1/16/24 class is currently 25 yrs old. If they live in DEN or points west and are displaced to do a transcon to a crappy schedule…and they’re looking at an airline based where they live hiring 2000+ every year…one starts asking the ?’s.

If I had 40 years left…it’s not a tough call to fill out some apps. No decision to make until you get a CJO.

Originally Posted by e6bpilot

That’s what I would consider a very compelling reason to leave. And agreed, you can make the decision after the CJO. I am just saying that this is largely going to be a non issue in a year. For the vast majority of us, sticking it out is absolutely the right move. For a few, especially junior and living in Denver and not going to leave…well, let’s just say I would definitely be looking at all the options.

Originally Posted by Proximity

I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Right now it’s the western bases that will be affected by displacement.



SWAPA has addressed the Austin domicile and the overall displacement situation a fair amount, including the email two days ago with the subject "Assigned Seat Settlement, Jumpseating, and More". In that email they predicted an additional ~200 displacements based on a preview of the vacancy bid. When the final numbers come out on the 22nd, and the last stragglers enter their AUS bids, the picture will become more clear.

There’s little doubt that the majority of pilots voluntarily bidding Austin will be currently based in Dallas and Houston. However, those bases are not projected to have much in the way of reductions. According to the From the Source video published last week, the majority of the reductions will come from DEN, PHX, and OAK. Fortunately, many new hires and upgrades will be part of this bid, which will help soften the blow. That said, there will be displacements, and then secondary displacements, as pilots are pushed out of Denver and subsequently out of other western bases.

I think most pilots here don’t have a good understanding of how the vacancy bid process actually works. There are a few unique aspects to how vacancy bids play out at Southwest.

First, while displaced pilots have domicile right of return (DDR), that protection is only valid on primary vacancies (the ones published in the vacancy bid). So if your domicile is in constant decline, with either negative or zero primary vacancies each bid, DDR becomes essentially worthless.

Second, the overall vacancy bid is processed before displacements are determined. The ramification is that secondary vacancies are filled by senior pilots before displacements even begin.

Consider this hypothetical situation: the final bid numbers show -50 CA seats in DEN as predicted in the On the Source video. Let’s say 10 Denver CAs voluntarily decide to leave DEN, creating 10 secondary vacancies. Those 10 vacancies will then be filled by the most senior pilots system-wide bidding DEN CA. After that, the displacements are processed. This creates the bizarre situation where senior pilots are awarded Denver, while a large number of junior pilots are displaced out of Denver in the same bid.

When the displacement bid is processed, vacancies are not considered at all. Instead, the displaced pilot’s next domicile preference is evaluated, and if they are more senior than a pilot already in that domicile, they will displace that pilot. This will almost certainly create a large cascade of displacements out west, eventually pushing pilots into Texas bases and possibly into junior eastern bases like BWI and MCO (FOs).

Austin will grow significantly in the March through June bids, so expect at least four months of chaos. I don’t fully fault SWAPA, because this scenario has never played out at Southwest to this extent, both in total pilots involved and in duration of displacement. Fingers crossed that new hires and upgrades take some edge off the chaos.

That said, now that we’ve seen how the company will act, there are certainly some improvements to the contract that need to be made—both to improve the situation for displaced pilots and to make displacements more costly, thereby encouraging the company to avoid them in the first place. Right now there is very little financial impact to the company, especially since most displaced pilots will not take a paid move.

Originally Posted by nene

They could add a side letter whereas displaced pilots get PS commuting for two years so by then they should have figured out a future situation.

Originally Posted by rightseat

So I really don’t understand why we as a group don’t do something more for the displaced pilots. I do not understand why we have anyone, regardless of seniority being awarded a base until all displaced pilots with right of return are back where they want.

I also believe that any displaced pilot should get a positive space, premium window or aisle seat while commuting from their home base, until they are returned to their original base.

Finally, displacements should be given company provided hotel rooms, scheduled by the company upon request of the displaced pilot at their new domicile for the first two years of any displacement.

No other side letter agreements should even be discussed with the company until this is approved. The company is simply not feeling enough displacement pain. Enough is enough. If as they say, most of this will be resolved through hiring and upgrades then this should be an easy give for the company.

Remember this Austin opening isn’t over with on this vacancy. This one gets us less than half way to the 750 when it is fully staffed. There is more pain to come.