At SWA:

Hotels a mix of Mariott, Hyatt, Hilton, Doubletree, Renaissance with a couple Holiday Inn's.

On RSV you get 15 off with a 90/96 trip guarantee. Able to pick up as much as you want...can't drop RSV unless someone picks it up. I'm averaging 115 trips a month as a RSV picking up a day or two a month. Will be based at home next month so more time at home since I won't be commuting.

 

May I add on to this a bit?

Hotels: vast majority are Crowne Plazas, several Radissons, Holiday Inn, and even some MCM Elegante. There is no long/short overnight language so expect overnights at airport hotels, frequently in business parks with a few exceptions,

Although reserves get about 15 days off per month, remember that SW does not offer long call reserve. It is all short call. And since reserves are either AM or PM you will need to commute to base either the night before an AM reserve period, or the morning after a PM reserve block ends, scheduling almost never releases early.

Reserves fly almost every available day, but unlike other airlines you are not able to choose trips on reserve, so even if one trip is very commutable, you may not get it - luck of the draw.

There is no way to "drop" a trip. You can try to give away a trip, but generally speaking the weekend trips that Junior lineholders get are not very desirable to those who would pick up. And in the summer, when premium flying is plentiful, it's hard to give away anything.

Once you are a lineholder there is some good flexibility to trade between trips and pick up additional flying, but it can be extremely challenging to get rid of flying if you need time off for some reason.

Fatigue, sick, and commuter language is excellent. Crews are a lot of fun. Airplane is frustratingly antiquated. Company will not spend $ on things that they feel don't add value (like printers or window shades)

No crew meals even on long trans-cons or international turns. We pay for our own parking and uniforms. We have profit sharing but it goes into retirement rather than as a cash payout like at some other airlines. Retirement is a 9.3% match to the 401K rather than the 15-16% B fund offered at some other airlines. Can be made to ride in the cockpit during deadheads. Those are just a few things that come to mind that differ from Delta.

 

I'm not sure if this is changing or my new hire friends that live in base are just extremely lucky, but I have one based in PHX and in one in OAK and they've only been used 5 days this month respectively so far out of their 3 separate 4-day blocks of reserve. Granted, they both have pass listed in the DRO.

 

That's extremely unusual. Tell them not to get used to it.

 

Can you bid AM/PM reserve? When can you get released from AM and PM reserve? I will living about three hours from the airport.

 

I really don't think that has much to do with it. Having that checked is just a tie breaker between you and someone else and very rarely do you have two people tied in both RPT and days available. Highest RPT remaining while still under gaurantee (i.e. above the line) always goes regardless of whether you have a pass or fly preference for any given trip that matches your reserve block.

 

You bid AM or PM rsv. Callout is 2 hrs. You can get released after 9 hrs on the last day if not used or 8 hrs after you duty on if you work.

 

I commute until June and have Fly listed. Been used every day this month and all but 1 day the last 2 months. I'm switching to Pass for June so we'll see if I get used less. I've got a friends in MDW and PHX and have gone whole rsv blocks without getting used and it seems in those two bases people are more inclined to pick up blocks from RSV's. Not much luck in LAS.

 

Very sad, but very true. Our scope at Delta (Section 1) is 34 pages long and there are another 15 pages of LOA's that negatively impacted our scope in between contracts. That's a total of 49 pages in our Section.

I've never known but would like to ask you Southwest guys, how many pages in total is your Section 1 Scope?

Carl

 

Nine pages in Section 1, for now.

I don't remember the number of pages in the failed TA but it was definitely larger because it added many pages of ambiguous and unenforceable language which is a major reason (among many others) that it was not ratified.