Southwest Airlines Pilots Are Fed Up -- and They Aren't Alone -- The Motley Fool

 

Fed up?! ROTFLMAO. Riiiiight. Not according to how smoothly they still keep the operation going

I contend that they obviously aren't fed up enough.

 

What's the alternative?

 

[QUOTE=afxc1627;2133893]What's the alternative?[/QUOTE

When the operation slows down, it garners attention. I'm not even saying what's right or wrong, just the way it is. Here comes the busy Summer travel season.

 

While not huge numbers, I think we've had a SWA guy in each of our new hire classes this year. There will always be a small number of pilots who quit one company and go to another the first year or two. Anecdotally, it seems SWA has had a few more no shows and a few more quit than in years past. I know of a Delta guy who left to join SWA, so its not just a one way door, but in years past when someone joined SWA they seemed to want to stay. One casualty of the post-Kelleher era is that for many pilots SWA is just another airline now. One guy who left there last year (spring-ish 2015) just got awarded 757 captain in MEM on the last bid. It will take a while for him to get to class, but he will be a 2.5-3.0 year captain at FedEx when he activates. That growth at other companies is harder to resist when negotiations at your company seem so painfully slow.

 

Albie,
you are correct sir. many junior folks weighing their options but for most it is not a realistic move. Delta just had a Captain bid that awarded a Capt seat in NYC to a 19 months on property guy. Congrats to him. However, for most SWA pilots that have been here for more than about 2-3 years it is a pipe dream of thinking coulda woulda shoulda.
Most folks are stuck in their seats, stuck in their homes, don't want to change living in domicile or an easy commute to chase a possibility of a quicker upgrade to only have to commute to NYC>
Interesting times though. Great to see 900+ of my fellow pilots picketing in chicago

 

Would be nice if pilots stopped picking up so much open time.

 

So that more people can get JA'd?

With 10 crew bases and everyone flying the same airplane scheduling has a huge amount of flexibility to cover open trips so you're just screwing someone into flying on their day off as opposed to sticking it to the man by not picking up.

 

Yeah sure. Let the senior Bubbas get JAd. You know the ones who vote YES on everything like the last CBA change that gave us jetway JA versus the volunteer game of answering the phone with a 214 area code. Spread the pain on the entire seniority list. Maybe after enough YESSIES get butt hurt, they will demand a voluntary JA system.

 

The senior bubbas are the ones raking in all the sweet premium trips so it will be the next guys down the list who wind up taking it for the team.