Yeah, I figured

 

I asked that same question to a union guy. He said you'd still be responsible to the company and they can do whatever they want still.
Reserve got better but not close to what others have.
No long call, no self assign, no trip ownership from the company , still on the hook after your trip. Have to wait around for your duty day to be done with even though you've flown your assigned trip so you might miss your commute home.
Things I've learned in my short time here- it's all about the pay. No one cares about QOL. Only how much can I work to make the most amount of money possible.
Kinda getting disgusting.

 

So....opposed to "how little can I work and make the most money?"

I'm just curious, would you still have applied to SWA if they voted in TA1?

 

It goes both ways for sure and generally depends on how much flying there is to be had.

You can -
Fly your line and get around 100 a month.
Try to give away or elitt down and work less and make less.
Fly your ass off and get a lot more.
Try to clear as much of your board as possible and fly smart and either make a lot of money or have a lot of time off.

I have done all 4 depending on the month. This month, I have found that the open time and reroutes have been scarce so I am working more to pay for a vacation that I have upcoming. July I worked 12 days and still killed it. I agree that it is frustrating at times, and there are things in the contract and in the AIP bullet points that frustrate me as well. I want to be treated like a professional and I find that is lacking here by the way ground ops treats us and the way we negotiate our contracts.
It's Southwest, not United, not Delta. We do have a lot of flexibility in our schedule and that is the big advantage to working here. There are, however, huge trade offs to that.

 

Reserve sucks. Pay per day will make it much much better. I am sure there are still some unintended consequences that I am not seeing with pay per day, but under the old system you got screwed almost every month and provided your professional services at no cost to the company. F that.
You are right though, we sacrifice QOL for money and flexibility. If you are a lineholder, even a junior one, and put in a little time and effort, you can make a pretty good schedule for yourself.

 

Don't get me wrong sw is waaay better than where I was and I chose sw over all others because of the flexibility. But the greed is amazing. Or maybe it's the cpts that tell me they need to fly 150 trips a month to pay their bills. I'm shocked that someone making 300k can barely make it. To each their own but that person's inability to budget affects those who are just trying to make a little more to get by.
Case in point of a 10 yr FO bidding straight time on a trip last min to take it away from a new hire when that person already has 150 tfp for the month and the new guy is trying to afford the 1st yr and pay his/her bills.
It's that behavior that's disgusting and the idea that people support it.
I'm sure that's at each airline and I haven't experienced it yet and that's why I'm shocked.
I do hope that I'm not that way, but you never know the situation you'll be in the future.

 

Greed does suck. To bypass greed,
probies looking for a little extra cash need to bid MOT for crappy little pieces of turns or 2-days that fit around their schedule (absolutely no one else wants them while they are in MOT at straight time...but people spinning things down will use them immediately when ELITT opens). This is exactly why the contract has specific language for trading MOT in ELITT.

With patience, the probie can then go ELITT fishing for at least a rigged 6.5 per day. Worse case, probie flies that non rigged award for SY pay. Better than getting open time ninja-ed, yes?

Best case, perhaps grabbing a 2.8 turn out of MOT and managing to land a 32+TFP 4-day fish at SY pay on board (subject to block and FDP limits...so an elusive catch for sure)

Hope this helps. Greed does suck. Probies must be crafty!!

 

I think I understood about half of what you just posted WIKI

Either I need more beer, or I've had too much beer.

 

I've been pretty successful getting HOT at straight time (2nd year rate) and I've even landed a DOT at premium time (also 2nd year rate).

Part 117 is what truly sucks!

 

Guys bid sniping at straight time is a September and February problem. I just picked up a straight time leg for the first time in almost a year. It pained me to do it, believe me.
I know the seniority system sucks, but it is the same here as anywhere else.
Also, the problem with your scenario is that the guy bidding straight time over the cap would have gotten the trip after the new guy bidding straight time under the cap. KTC.